


unexpected tidings

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Series: Patrick Scott [11]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Alex is a BAMF, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Flint is actually a halfway decent brother, Jesse Manes is his own warning tag, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Michael is a genius, POV Alex Manes, Patrick in ch2, Separated at Birth, or at adoption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-01-29 19:41:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 24,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21415594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: The Evans' adopted two children that day. The third stayed behind. In one universe, the third child finds his way back to his brother and sister after just a few years.This is not that universe.Here, it takes twenty years and a Manes to reunite the three siblings.
Relationships: Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Series: Patrick Scott [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1417255
Comments: 54
Kudos: 541
Collections: Roswell_Favorites





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i told myself i wasn't going to write another long fic so i'm counting this as a half victory?
> 
> Special shoutout to Caitlin, Christi, Amanda, and Tove for not only being lovely and wonderful human beings but for being my cheerleaders and my betas. Love you all!

No.

No _ fucking _way.

No way was this happening. Not to him. Not right now.

Liz was still talking, Alex realized distantly. The blood pounding in his ears was drowning out everything she said but he could clearly see her lips still moving. 

“-ex? _ Alex _?” He registered the voice seconds before the hand clapped down on his shoulder. Alex flinched before he could help it and the hand lifted immediately. “Alex? Are you okay?” Alex turned slightly to see Kyle staring at him with worried eyes.

He nodded absently. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Just...processing.” He paused. “Was sort of starting to think my dad was just insane for hunting aliens in Roswell.” Alex desperately wanted to say he thought his dad was insane for believing in aliens in the first place but that would be a lie. Aliens were real, Alex had no doubts about that, but he hadn’t thought any of them would be stupid enough to stay in _ Roswell, _ of all places. 

“Yeah, I know, it’s a lot.” Liz’s voice was soft with understanding as she offered him some water. Alex took it with a small smile, grateful to have something in his hands. His mind was still whirring over what he’d just learned.

“So let me get this straight,” Maria asked suddenly, her voice ringing loudly in the otherwise silent room. She was perched on the edge of the couch, her hands clasped in front of her mouth as she stared at Max and Isobel Evans. “You two are aliens.” They didn’t answer because, at this point, she wasn’t asking. “You woke up in the desert 20 years ago with no memory of your life before waking up. You have magical-”

“I don’t like the term magical,” Isobel cut her off. “I think it’s safe to say it’s not magic if it’s intrinsic to who we are.”

Maria’s face twitched like she wanted to argue but she just sighed and continued. “So you have alien powers,” Isobel nodded (in approval or assent, Alex wasn’t sure), “and now the US military, headed by Alex’s father, is hunting you down.” Max and Isobel both nodded. “Oh and there’s a third alien out there but you have no idea where he is.” Alex took a long sip of his water.

“Correct,” Max agreed softly. “There were three of us when we woke up but after our parents adopted Isobel and I, we lost track of him. We don’t even know his name.”

“Could you track him down?” Liz asked as she sat down. “He could be in danger. We should find him if we can.”

Alex bit his tongue so hard he tasted blood.

Isobel shook her head. “I asked Noah to look into it for me. He got access to the orphanage’s records but since we don’t remember his name and we don’t know what he looks like, it was a dead end.”

“Well, if you have a list of names, maybe Alex could track them all down?” Kyle suggested, drawing everyone’s attention to Alex. 

He coughed lightly to suppress a groan and just barely restrained himself from glaring at Kyle. “Theoretically, I could do that.” He didn’t want to lie to them but he also didn’t want to make any false promises. Already he could see the hope in Max and Isobel’s eyes. 

“So, excepting the search for the third alien, what’s the plan here?” Maria asked, mercifully drawing the attention away from Alex. “I mean, I appreciate being in the loop and all, but why are you telling me? I get Alex. But why me?”

“Because we’re going to need help,” Max admitted. “We need people who can keep an eye out for Jesse Manes and anyone else who might be a little too interested in aliens in Roswell. Liz said we can trust you so we’re asking you to help us stay safe and out of the government’s reach.” 

“So basically you’re asking me to be the lookout?” Maria clarified.

“Who knows more about what’s going on in this town than the resident bartender? And psychic?” Liz winked at Maria and Maria smiled lightly. It was true, they’d always joked that Maria knew more about the people in this town than anyone else. Her friendly nature and copious amounts of alcohol usually led to people spilling their guts to her late at night. She was always careful not to spread around the things she heard, treating those moments a bit like a confessional, but if anyone new came into town, Maria would probably hear about it before anyone else.

“Ok,” she agreed. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open and let you know if I hear anything.”

“Thank you,” Max told her sincerely.

“And you,” Isobel looked at Alex. “We need an inside man with the Air Force. Your dad’s in charge so you can mosey on up to him and get the dirt. Find out what he has on us and let us know.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” Liz looked faintly betrayed while Max and Isobel’s faces shuttered. Alex held up a hand to stall the explosion. “My father and I don’t exactly get along. I’ve spent ten years doing my damnedest to get stationed as far away from my father as I possibly could. No way does he voluntarily share information and no way would he believe any excuse I could come up with to try and get involved. The second I ask any questions, he’s going to know something’s up.”

Max deflated while Isobel just looked angrier. “Well, what good are you then?”

“Hey,” Liz stood up to defend him. “Back off, Isobel. I get that that’s not something you wanted to hear but I asked Alex here to help you. Don’t get pissy just because he can’t do exactly what you want him to.”

Alex smiled at her in thanks before focusing on Isobel. “I can’t join my dad’s operation but that doesn’t mean I can’t get information. I’m a codebreaker, okay? I’ve hacked foreign government’s for fun. I can get in and spy on him without him even knowing it, but it’s going to take some time. You can’t expect results immediately. If I go too fast, it’ll tip him off that there’s a security breach and it’ll all be over.”

Isobel opened her mouth to say something but Max put a hand on her arm and she stilled. “Thank you, Alex. Really, whatever you can get us will be much appreciated. We just- we just want to live our lives, okay? And we can’t do that if we’re looking over our shoulders every second of the day.”

“You just want to be safe,” Alex agreed softly. “I get it. I’ll do whatever I can.” And he would. His motivations might be a bit more selfish than they thought, but it wouldn’t change the result; Alex would do whatever it took to bring down his father and stop him from completing his self-appointed mission to eradicate the alien race.

Their little meeting broke up soon after that and Alex didn’t bother hanging around. He made his goodbyes quickly and slipped out the door before anyone could pull him into a conversation.

His phone was in his hand as soon as the door closed behind him. He held it tightly as he got in the car, as he turned the ignition, and as he pulled away from Max’s house. He held it all through the drive back to Jim Valenti’s old cabin.

Only when he was safe inside his own four walls did Alex press Call.

“It’s two in the morning,” a gruff voice answered after a few rings. Alex pulled the phone away from his ear to check the time. Sure enough it was midnight.

“Sorry,” Alex apologized softly. “I can call back in the morning but I have some news and I figured you’d rather hear it now than later.”

There was shuffling on the other end before, “what is it?” The voice was clearer, the sleep cleared from it, but also sadder. Alex closed his eyes briefly, knowing what the other man was expecting him to say. After the way he left, Alex wasn’t surprised that the other man had been anticipating a middle of the night break-up phone call but this wasn’t it.

“I had a lovely conversation tonight with Liz, you remember I told you about Liz?” He got a grunt of acknowledgement and Alex pressed on, “well her boyfriend and his twin sister had a bunch of us over to talk about something near and dear to their hearts.” He paused.

“Alex,” the sadness was gone, replaced by annoyance and confusion.

Alex hummed and leaned back on the couch, his head tilting back to stare at a knot in the ceiling. “Turns out the boyfriend and his sister are being hunted by the military in an operation spearheaded by my father. Want to know why? _ Apparently _, they’re both aliens. Woke up in these pod things twenty years ago with no memory of their lives before then.” He paused and waited for a response but the line stayed quiet. “They said there was another boy with them. He didn’t get adopted with them and they lost track of him when they were seven. They’ve tried to find him but since they don’t know his name, they haven’t had any luck.”

“Alex-” came a strangled reply. “Are you saying-”

“How come you never mentioned you’re from Roswell, Michael?”

**\-------**

_ 2009 _

Alex straightened his clothes and resisted the urge to check his hair again. He didn’t have any hair to check anymore and the compulsion was just driving him crazy. 

He gave himself ten seconds to freak out and then he steeled himself and pushed through the front door of the bar. It was a nice place, slightly run down but not dingy or grimy. It reminded him a little bit of the Pony and it was enough to make him relax slightly. It wasn’t quite enough, though, to make him forget that he was underage in a gay bar as far away from the base as he could get and no one knew where he was. Alex had tried to make himself look older but the high and tight haircut just made him look younger than his years and there was no getting around it. He knew he was stepping into a potentially dangerous situation but he was finally out of his father’s reach and he wasn’t going to be a good little Manes man. 

There was an open seat at the far end of the bar and Alex slid into it without any fuss. He’d felt a few eyes on him as he crossed the room but so far no one had caught his eye. Truthfully, Alex had no idea what he was looking for. Other than a few fumbles in the dark with guys who refused to acknowledge they might be less than 100% straight, Alex didn’t really have much experience. 

He ordered a drink and slipped the bartender extra to overlook the fake ID before settling back in his chair and scoping the place out. Most of the men here were obviously older than him, many of them by more than a few years, but there were a few guys closer to him in age that could prove promising. Alex was just working up the nerve to get up and go talk to someone when a loud screech pierced the air. Everyone ducked their heads and covered their ears while it died down.

“Sorry!” A guy yelled from the corner where a small stage had been set up. Alex stared at it with dread.

“Oh no.”

“Alright!” The guy yelled again. “Karaoke starts in five minutes! Sign up sheet is up here. We ask that you pick your song ahead of time so we can get it pulled up for you.” He ducked off the stage as a good number of guys got up to put their names down.

“Fuck me,” Alex whispered.

“Not your thing?”

Alex splashed his drink as he jerked towards the new voice. The guy held his hands up and laughed lightly. “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

Alex mumbled something in response but truthfully, he had no idea what he said. He was too busy being captivated by the most gorgeous curls he’d ever seen in his life and a pair of warm, honey-brown eyes that were raking over his own body. 

“Karaoke is simply a publicly accepted form of group torture,” Alex answered after a beat too long.

The guy raised an eyebrow. “You just hate music, don’t you?”

“I love music,” Alex protested. He swung an arm at the stage where the first guy was getting set up. “This is not music. This is- I don’t know, I’d say it’s comparable to cats screeching but I feel like that’s a disservice to cats.”

The guy threw his head back and laughed. He had a nice laugh, Alex recognized as he felt a warm pull in his gut. _ Oh _. This is what he’d come here looking for.

“You never know. People can surprise you.” The guy didn’t quite wink but it was a close thing, Alex could tell.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to get up there and prove me wrong?” 

“Me? Oh no, I’m worse than the cats,” the guy took a sip of his beer. “But I’m sure there’s one or two people here that aren’t awful.”

“You sure about that?”

The guy leaned in. “What? You want to bet on it?”

Alex hummed and rubbed the rim of his bottle along his bottom lip. “Every five guys that go up there, if any of them aren’t completely awful, I’ll buy you a drink. If they all suck, you buy,” he suggested. 

“You realize this means you’ll have to stick around for a while, right? No running away from the screeching cats.”

“I realize,” Alex sighed. “I suppose the company will just have to make up for it.”

The guy smiled and Alex swore the whole room brightened. He held out his hand. “I’m Michael.”

“Alex.”

**\- - - - - - **

_ Present Day _

Alex slapped a hand at his phone when it buzzed the next morning. He could tell from the lack of sunlight streaming through his window that it was too early for his alarm so he let it ring. 

A moment later it buzzed again.

Alex groaned and grabbed it without opening his eyes. “This is payback, isn’t it?” He didn’t have to check who it was. Only one person would be calling him at this time of day.

“I would never,” Michael drawled. Alex had a moment to bask in the sound of his voice before he went and ruined it. “I’m flying out there today.”

Alex groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. “Michael, you c-”

“I swear to god, if you’re about to tell me I can’t come to New Mexico, I will shred every single one of your band tees.” Michael’s voice was firm but Alex already knew better than to doubt him. This was the same argument (different reasons) that they’d had before Alex moved back to Roswell. Michael had wanted to come with him and Alex had refused. Emphatically. It was the worst fight they’d ever had. Four months later and they hadn’t really had a chance to resolve it, yet here it was rearing its ugly head again. “You told me you found my siblings and you expect me to sit on my ass on the other side of the country? Fuck you, Alex. I’m coming.”

Alex took a deep breath. “_ Can _ you? Can you take the time off work?”

“I’ll figure it out.” But they both knew he couldn’t. Michael had already taken too much time off early in the year when Alex was recovering from his amputation and going through rehab. Unless he managed to catch his boss in the best mood of her life, Michael wouldn’t get the leave to come to New Mexico. Not until the next year. 

“Michael. I’m so-”

“Don’t fucking apologize, Alex.” Michael cut him off and Alex snapped his mouth shut. “Not for that.” Alex was glad Michael couldn’t see his face because he knew it was doing something funny. It was a certain level of intimacy Alex had never expected to have, to be _ known _ so well. Because while someone might assume that Alex was apologizing for trying to stop Michael from coming or for pointing out that Michael didn’t have any leave, Michael knew Alex was about to apologize for being the _ reason _Michael didn’t have leave. Even a year later, Alex still felt compelled to apologize for forcing Michael to spend days and weeks away from work helping him recover. 

“How’s your project coming?” Alex asked after a beat. The last time he’d seen Michael, he was neck deep in a new project that he was really excited for and Alex didn’t understand a thing about. He wasn’t sure what its status was at this point.

Michael let out a breath. “Don’t distract me.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to ask you about your work, about- fuck, Michael, you were excited about it and I just want to know how it’s going. Is that a fucking crime?”

“Do you honestly care?”

“Yes!” Alex yelled into the phone. “Yes, of course I care, asshole.”

Michael didn’t answer for a while. “It’s going well. We’re still a long way from seeing any real results but we’re making headway.”

“Good,” Alex breathed. “I’m glad it’s going well.” He tried not to read too much into the fact that Michael didn’t launch into one of his tangents. He really did; it wasn’t his fault that he knew a quiet Michael was an angry Michael. “Was I wrong to call you last night?”

“Are you asking me if you should have hidden the fact that you found my siblings from me?” Michael’s voice turned icy.

“No, I’m asking if I should have found a better time than 2am on a weeknight when I knew you had work in the morning.”

“No.” 

“Are you walking?” Alex asked when Michael didn’t say anything else. He could hear the other man slightly out of breath and the sounds of a busy street through the phone. He pulled the phone away from his ear to check the time. “It’s early, even for you.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been putting in extra hours. Big project and all.”

“Michael,” Alex half scolded. “You need sleep. And food. You can’t spend every waking moment at work.”

Michael hummed noncommittally. “I’m here.” 

“Look, do you want me to tell them? I didn’t say anything to them last night but I can if you want me to.”

“Do you think you should?”

“I think you should meet them first and make sure it’s them.” 

Michael laughed harshly. “How the fuck do you expect me to meet them when you don’t want me to even breathe in the vicinity of the entire state, Alex?”

“Michael, you know that’s not what I-”

“I have to work. I’ll talk to you later.”

The line went dead before Alex could say anything else. 

**\- - - - - - **

_ 2011 _

“Come on!” Wilkins yelled in his ear. “Tell me what you like! I’ll help you look.”

Alex winced as he took a long swig. It was great to have a friend who was so supportive of his sexuality, especially now with the repeal of DADT, but Wilkins was a little much for Alex’s taste. He couldn’t deny that it was nice not to have to go out alone for once, though. Alex had gotten into the habit of begging off his friends’ nights out so he could have his own fun, but it got lonely after a while. Since Alex had officially come out to them a few weeks ago, however, a few of them had made a concerted effort to support Alex and he appreciated it.

“What about that one!” Wilkins pointed obviously to a tall, over muscled beefcake standing at the bar and Alex shook his head. “No? Is he not hot?”

He sounded so confused that Alex had to laugh. “He’s not my type.”

“So what is?” Wilkins started pointing out a bunch of guys, each of them varying greatly from the guy before. Eventually, Alex reached out and forced his arm down.

“Stop!” He laughed. “You’re drawing attention to us.”

Wilkins smirked. “Isn’t that what you want?”

“Not that kind of attention,” Alex shook his head. “You’re acting like a tourist.”

“A tourist?”

“Like you’re a straight guy in a gay club for the first time.”

Wilkins furrowed his brow. “But I _ am _ a straight guy in a gay club for the first time.”

Alex rolled his eyes and took a sip of his drink. “Doesn’t mean you have to act like it. Blend in, dude.”

“You could just tell me your type.”

Alex huffed. “Curls. I like guys with curly hair.” It hadn’t used to be a thing for him but after- well Alex didn’t look too closely at why he’d suddenly become a fan of curls overnight. The fact of the matter was that he now had a type. If it could be traced directly back to one guy Alex had known for all of a few hours almost two years prior, well, no one needed to know. 

“Curls, huh?” Wilkins hummed loud enough to be heard over the pounding bass. “Well it might just be your lucky day, Manes.”

“Oh?”

Wilkins grinned and nodded over his shoulder before disappearing with far more grace than he’d ever shown before.

Alex only had a moment to stare after his friend before he heard it.

“Hey Private.” The voice was low and intimate, the man speaking directly into his ear to be heard, and Alex had to suppress the shiver it sent down his spine.

He didn’t turn around right away, just glanced over his shoulder as if his eyes needed the confirmation his body had already given him. Sure enough, Michael Guerin stood behind him in the flesh, eighteen months and over a thousand miles away from where Alex had left him.

Michael grinned and pulled back enough to sip his beer. “Fancy running into you here. Couldn’t quite believe it when I saw you but then well,” he ran his eyes down Alex’s body deliberately, “you’re hard to forget, Private.”

Now Alex did turn. “You keep calling me Private. You remember my ass but not my name?”

Michael’s grin turned dirty and he leaned in close, his free hand settling on Alex’s hip as he pressed his lips to Alex’s ear. “Hello, Alex.” This time, Alex couldn’t suppress his shiver. 

“Michael.” Michael grinned genuinely and Alex had to kiss him so he did. If anything, it was better than he’d remembered. He hadn’t thought that was possible, if he was being honest. He’d assumed that he’d remembered their encounter with rose-colored glasses but the second their lips touched, Alex felt alive in a way he hadn’t since that night. It was like the guy somehow had the key to Alex’s soul and he kept it in his lips.

It really was unfair.

Alex pulled back enough to grab Michael’s drink and plop it on the table next to them. “Let’s dance.” He took a step towards the dance floor, Michael’s hand firmly in his own. Michael resisted lightly until they got to the edge of the throng of bodies and he stopped short. Alex looked back with a raised eyebrow in question.

Michael shook his head. “I don’t dance,” he yelled.

Alex looked from Michael to the dance floor and back. Slowly, he nodded and dropped Michael’s hand. “Okay.” Keeping his eyes locked with Michael, he edged his way into the crowd and started moving to the beat. He held eye contact as long as possible but eventually he got sucked into the sway of bodies and he lost himself to the music. 

A full song hadn’t even gone by before Alex felt familiar hands grip his waist. He smiled and turned in Michael’s arms. “I thought you didn’t dance.”

“I don’t. Guess the company will just have to make up for it.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” Alex promised with a grin.

Alex kept them out there for three songs before conceding to the fact that Michael really was a terrible dancer and led him back to the bar. Wilkins caught his eye and gave him a thumb’s up when he saw Michael with him.

“So, what brings you to Nebraska?” Michael asked as they waited to catch the bartender’s attention.

“New posting,” Alex answered. “What about you? I thought you said you were at school in Florida? Don’t tell me you came to Nebraska for fun.”

Michael laughed. “No, I’m touring schools here for grad school.”

“Already?” Alex turned away as the bartender came up to them and he quickly ordered for them both. “You’re a junior, right?”

Michael nodded, obviously pleased that Alex remembered. “I won’t have time to look at schools during the semester so I’m using summer to explore my options.”

“Smart,” Alex remarked as he paid for their drinks.

“I try.”

“What are you studying?”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “What’s with the inquisition?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t get a chance to talk much last time,” he paused to share a grin with Michael, “and I figure we can get to know each other a little bit. Feels a bit, I don’t know, running into you again, here of all places.”

“Yeah,” Michael agreed softly, “feels like something.”

“So?”

“Astrophysics,” Michael answered and Alex almost choked on his drink. “I’m gonna work for NASA.”

“Oh yeah? Got it all planned out?”

“Yup. I’m going into space one day and I dare them to try and stop me.”

**\- - - - - - **

_ Present Day _

It was almost a week before Alex talked to Michael again. That wasn’t altogether unusual for them but the way they’d left their last phone call made the silence grate on Alex. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d pulled out his phone to call Michael only to tuck it away again without even unlocking it.

“Alex?” 

Alex jerked his head up to see Liz looking at him, eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Yeah?”

Liz slid into the booth opposite him without waiting for an invitation. It was only when he looked across at her that he noticed his food had arrived. He hadn’t heard the waiter stop by.

“What’s going on with you?” Liz asked. “Is it the-” she leaned in, “alien thing? If you need to talk it out to process it, I’m here. I know it’s a lot to wrap your head around.”

Alex shook his head. “No, it’s not that. That’s fine.”

“Really?” Liz seemed skeptical. “It’s okay to admit that it surprised you. And I know it’s got to be a lot of pressure spying on your dad for them.”

“It’s really not that, if I’m being honest,” Alex laughed. “I mean I’m a little surprised that they would stay in Roswell but the fact that they’re them? No, that’s not throwing me.”

Liz hummed. “So what’s on your mind? Every time I see you lately it’s like you’re a million miles away.”

Alex let out a heavy sigh. “It’s Michael.”

“Michael...the boyfriend?” Liz perked up with interest. Alex had told her and Maria he’d been seeing someone for a while but he hadn’t shared much more than that. Liz clearly saw an opening to get some dirt. “What’s going on with you two? Is he coming here?” Alex stifled a wince. Trust Liz to hit the nail on the head without even trying. “Oh.” Her tone softened. “Did something happen?”

Alex reached out for his milkshake and started playing with the straw. “We’re...not fighting, per se. We’re just not exactly talking right now.”

Liz was quiet for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it or-?”

“It’s just- we disagreed on something kind of big and neither one of us is willing to budge. We fought before I moved back here and the only time we’ve spoken since it didn’t exactly go well.”

“How big? Like, you’ll fight for a while and then accept your different opinions or-” Liz didn’t come right out and ask if his relationship was in jeopardy but Alex heard it in the silence anyway. It threw him for a loop for a moment. 

Alex knew Michael had been hurt and angry when Alex told him not to come to New Mexico, he knew he’d been even more hurt when Alex told him about Max and Isobel and still didn’t want him to come, but he hadn’t thought it might ruin them. Not until Liz left the suggestion hanging in the air between them.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he sat back heavily. Liz reached across the table to lay her hand on his.

“Do you want to break up with him?”

“No,” Alex denied immediately. “But I might be pushing him away. I think- I think I might be pushing him too far. And he might-” His phone cut him off, the ring obnoxiously loud in the quiet diner. “Shit,” Alex took his hand back from Liz and started patting his pockets. He found it just as it stopped ringing, Michael’s name flashing brightly on the screen.

Alex called back immediately.

“Hey,” Michael greeted reservedly.

“Hey,” Alex breathed, his shoulders sagging at the sound of his voice. Across the table, Liz smiled and slid out of the booth without a word. “How are you?”

“Good. Tired,” Michael admitted quietly. “Been working a lot.”

“The project’s going well?”

“Yeah it is. I talked to Rachel and we worked out a plan. I put in more hours now and in a few weeks, if everything stays on track, I can take a few days off.” Rachel, Michael’s boss, was known for being a hardass but she had a soft spot for Michael a mile wide. 

“Michael-” Alex sighed.

“Your objection has been noted, Alex, but fuck you. I’m coming to Roswell, it’s only a matter of when.” 

“Can you just give me some time?”

“Time for what?! Why are you so determined to keep me away?”

“Because I want to keep you safe!” A few heads turned towards him and Alex ducked his head and lowered his voice. “They only came to me because they found out that there’s a government conspiracy hunting them down. They asked me to find you to keep you _ safe _. You coming here is the opposite of that, Michael. Just- just let me make sure you won’t be putting yourself in danger by coming here. Please.”

Michael didn’t answer right away.

“Michael, just-”

“Fine.” Alex let out a breath and closed his eyes in relief. “I’ve been waiting twenty years, I guess I can wait a few more weeks.”

“Thank you.”

“But I _ am _coming there at some point,” Michael promised. “I’ll give you time to do your thing but, Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know what the problem is because you won’t tell me, but whatever it is it’s not going to keep me from my family forever. Not now that I know where they are.”

“I understand. I do. I just don’t want you to meet them just for all of you to get captured or worse.”

Michael made a noise Alex couldn’t interpret but didn’t say anything. Alex didn’t know what else he could say so he let the silence linger.

Liz stopped by with a fresh milkshake and a plate of hot fries, clearing away the cold food Alex had completely forgotten about without a word.

“How are you?” Michael finally asked. “How is it being home?”

“It’s not home,” Alex replied without thinking as he dunked a fry in his shake. 

“Oh?” He could hear the smile in Michael’s voice and Alex realized what he’d said, thankful Michael wasn’t there to see the flush on his cheeks.

He cleared his throat. “It’s weird. It’s been great to see Liz and Maria and be able to spend time with them again but Roswell itself is- I don’t know. So much has changed but at the same time it’s still the exact same.” He took a deep breath. “And my dad’s here.”

Michael was quiet as he started to put the pieces together. “Did you know he was going to be there?”

Alex hummed. “He’s been here for the past six years.”

“Alex,” Michael groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me he was there?”

“I didn’t want to think about it, honestly.” Alex dunked another fry. Truthfully, he hadn’t wanted to fight with Michael about it. If Michael had known Alex had requested Roswell as his final posting knowing full well his father was in town, he would’ve lost it. Michael and his father had never met (and Alex was going to do everything in his power to make sure they never did) but his boyfriend had a less than stellar view of the man. “It’s fine, really. We’ve crossed paths a few times at the base but we’re steering clear of each other and getting to see my friends again is outweighing having to deal with him.”

“I wish you didn’t have to deal with him at all.”

“I know,” Alex assured him. “And I love you for that. But I’m okay.”

Michael hummed disbelievingly. “If you say so. If you ever need a break from him though-”

“I’ll be on the next flight out. Promise.”

“Good.” Michael cleared his throat. “So what are you up to? You’re not working today, right?”

“Nope. I’m at the Crashdown right now but I’m working on that project later. Should take most of the day.”

“The Crashdown…that’s your friend Liz’s place right? The cafe?”

“Her dad’s yeah.”

Michael paused. “You’re putting french fries in your milkshake, aren’t you?”

Alex dunked another fry and plopped it in his mouth. “Nope,” he lied shamelessly.

“Ew. And while you’re on the phone with me, too. This makes me complicit in this, I hope you realize.”

“One day you will accept that milkshakes and french fries were made to go together.”

“Never.”

Liz slid back into the booth across from him with an apologetic look on her face.

“Liz is here,” he told Michael, an eyebrow raised in question to Liz.

“Say no more, I’ll let you go. Tell her I said hi and I can’t wait to meet her in person.” Michael hung up without letting Alex get a retort in.

He sighed and put his phone down. “Michael says hi.”

She smiled. “I take it you two are okay?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’re smiling.”

Alex suddenly felt the pull in his cheeks and the upturn of his lip and somehow smiled wider at the realization. “Nothing’s fixed but yeah, I think we’re okay.”

“Good. I’m glad. I can’t wait to meet him.”

Alex let that lie. “What’s up?”

“Max called. Someone broke into his house and he thinks it might’ve been the military. Something about tire tracks outside? He wanted to know if you could go over and see if they left anything behind.”

“Sure. I was going to work on their thing today anyway.” He shifted to pull out his wallet but Liz waved him off.

“On the house since you’re going to help Max.” 

Alex nodded at her in thanks, his attention caught by his phone as it vibrated on the table.

_ One month. _

  
It was from Michael. Alex had one month to make Roswell safe for aliens; no pressure.

**\- - - - - **

_ 2012 _

“VEGAS BABY!” Alex laughed as his friends grabbed Wilkins and yanked him back into his seat. The four of them had gotten a long weekend off at the same time and somehow Alex had agreed to a quick trip to Vegas. He’d turned 21 just a month earlier but he was the youngest of the four; the others were eager to get off the base and waste a few days in Sin City and Alex hadn’t had the energy to argue with them. Besides, a few days of losing themselves to the mindless oblivious of Las Vegas couldn’t hurt. Much.

They were halfway through their first night in town and already Jefferson and Wilkins were plastered. Alex and Mason were half corralling their friends, half on their way to joining them when Alex spotted him across the room. He blinked and he was gone.

“Maybe I should slow down,” he set down his mostly full drink.

“What? No! Why would you do that?” Mason asked in horror. “We need to catch up!” He waved a hand at where Jefferson and Wilkins were inventing terrible new white boy dance moves, the crowd giving them an ample berth.

Alex shook his head. “I’m seeing things, I swear.”

Mason set his own glass down. “What are you talking about? Like hallucinating? The drinks aren’t that good, Manes.”

“No, I thought I saw this guy I know,” he shook his head and took a sip despite his earlier vow to stop. “But it’s impossible. There’s no way he could be here.”

“Ohhhhh,” Mason drawled. “You saw a guy, huh?”

Alex rolled his eyes. He opened his mouth to say it wasn’t like that but snapped it shut when he realized it sort of was. Mason noticed and started laughing. 

“Alright, who was it?”

“Just some guy,” Alex protested. “An old hook up I guess, I don’t really know.”

Mason raised an eyebrow. “You don’t know if you hooked up with him?”

“No, I did. I just- I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Like I said, I’m seeing things.”

“Hmm,” Mason hummed faux philosophically. “And is there any particular reason you might _ want _ to see him? Even if he wasn’t there?”

Alex gave him a shove. “I’m drunk, dude. It’s not that deep.”

“If you say so,” Mason shrugged and drained his glass before reaching out and grabbing Alex’s to shove in his face. “But you aren’t nearly drunk enough yet. Bottoms up.”

Alex took the drink without argument and drained it quickly before he and Mason abandoned their seats in favor of ones far enough away that they could deny knowing Jefferson and Wilkin without deserting them completely. 

“Alright, I need you to be my wingman tonight,” Mason told him after another round of drinks. The place they were at was half bar-half club and the section they were sitting in was quiet enough that Mason didn’t have to shout to be heard but he still spoke a little loudly. Alex made a note to wait a bit before the next round or invest in a glass of water.

“I’d be a terrible wingman,” Alex objected.

“No, _ dude _, you’d be the perfect wingman!” 

“No, really, I’d be-” Alex stopped. Across the room, far enough that he honestly shouldn’t be able to see anyone, was Michael. The light was hitting him just right and Alex would know those curls anywhere. 

“Manes?” Mason asked. He snapped his fingers in front of Alex’s face. “Dude, you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’ll be right back.” Alex was out of his seat before he could second guess himself. What were the odds of running into the same guy three times in three different states? It was as if the universe was trying to tell him something and who was Alex to argue with the universe?

He slid his way through the crowd with far less grace than he’d like and before he knew it, he was only a table away. Any lingering doubts about hallucinations or wishful thinking fluttered away when he was faced with the inescapable reality of Michael Guerin.

Michael was sitting at a small table tucked in the corner with a beautiful woman who looked a few years older than him. Alex skirted a table and was almost close enough to say something when he saw Michael lean in and kiss her.

Alex froze for a heartbeat before rounding the next table and heading back to Mason, shaking his head at his own naivete. He got close enough to the table to see Mason searching the crowd for him when he felt someone grab hold of his wrist. He turned, prepared to throw off his assaulter, and froze when he realized it was Michael.

“Alex Manes,” Michael greeted. “I’m starting to think you’re following me,” he teased.

“And here I thought you were following me,” Alex returned weakly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” truthfully he wasn’t sure if he _ had _ interrupted or if Michael had just seen him in return, “just saw you and thought I’d say hi.”

Michael took a step closer. “And yet you left without saying anything.”

“You were busy.”

Michael glanced over his shoulder at his now empty table. “Yeah, I was.” He turned back to Alex. “I’m not busy anymore.”

Alex hesitated. “I, uh, I didn’t realize you-” he stopped before he embarrassed himself.

“I’m bi, Alex,” Michael explained with a small smile. “It’s not that complicated.”

“That’s cool.” Alex winced. “I mean, that’s-”

“I know what you meant,” Michael mercifully cut him off. “What are you doing here?”

Alex shrugged. “Belated birthday party slash our first long weekend in years? You?”

“Bachelor party.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Eh. The groom’s obsessed with gambling so he’s been spending all his time at the tables since we got here. The rest of us have sort of been left on our own.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying you’re essentially a free man?”

“Very free.” Michael looked him over. “You got plans?”

Alex shook his head slowly. “We go back in two days. Other than that? Wide open.”

A dirty grin spread over Michael’s face and his fingers pressed against Alex’s pulse. Until that moment, Alex hadn’t even realized Michael still held his wrist. He looked down at their joined hands and back at Michael. 

“Manes!” 

Michael dropped his wrist as Jefferson came barreling into Alex’s back. Alex stumbled forward a step but held his ground. “What the fuck, Jefferson?”

“Sorry!” He yelled too loudly. “Mason and I are taking Wilkins back to the room, he’s trashed. You coming with or you good?” Jefferson looked over at Michael with an appraising eye.

Alex looked to Michael in question; Michael only shrugged, leaving the decision up to him. “I’m good,” he answered without looking to Jefferson. “I’ll catch up with you guys later.”

Jefferson gave him a drunken salute and disappeared back into the crowd.

“Very presumptuous of you, Private,” Michael drawled. “Maybe I’m not that easy.”

Alex raised an eyebrow with a laugh. “Oh I know exactly how easy you are. But if you’d rather I went with them…” he took a half step in the direction Jefferson had left in before Michael grabbed his hips. Alex laughed. “You should never play poker, Michael. You can’t bluff for shit.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll have to find other ways to occupy my time here. Got any suggestions?”

“I’m sure I can come up with something.”

**\- - - - - -**

_ Present Day _

Alex kicked at the loose glass on the patio as he walked up to the now open window. “Max?”

The man in question poked his head around the corner, his shoulders only relaxing when he saw it was Alex. “Hey. Thanks for coming by.” He stepped out into the room and Alex could see the gun clutched tightly in his hand.

He nodded at the weapon. “They came when you were out of the house, I don’t think they’re going to come back. Not this soon. If they wanted to hurt you they would have made sure you were home before breaking in.”

Max tensed briefly before relaxing with a nod. “You’re probably right. I’m just a little on edge since we found out about Project Shepherd.” He flicked the safety on and set the gun down.

“Understandable,” Alex stepped through the broken window, glass crunching under his boot. “Just make sure you don’t go around accidentally shooting your friends. I know you can heal but…”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. I know how to use a gun,” Max huffed. “I just want this mess to over with.”

“Max?” Isobel’s voice called from outside.

“In here!” Max answered and Isobel came hurrying around the edge of the house a moment later.

“Are you okay?” She looked at the broken glass everywhere. “What the hell happened?” She wrapped Max up in a quick hug.

“Someone broke in,” Max answered.

“Well, I can see that,” Isobel huffed. “Alex? What are you doing here?”

“I asked him to come over and take a look. See if they left anything behind,” Max explained. Alex just nodded in agreement.

“And did they?”

Alex shrugged. “Haven’t had a chance to look.”

Isobel dropped her purse on the couch. “Well then let’s look. What are you looking for?”

Both of the twins turned to Alex. “Uh, anything out of place, initially. If they’re pros then they’ll cover their tracks but it’s always good to check for the obvious first, just in case. I’ll take a look at some of the less obvious hiding places and then Max, if you could do a perimeter check and see if anything’s been added to the exterior of the house. It’s harder to hide surveillance equipment out in the open but you’re also a lot less likely to suspect it so they might have set something up out there.” They both nodded and quickly got to work.

Max left them to look outside almost immediately and Alex and Isobel made their way steadily through Max’s office and then his living room. 

“Have you had any luck looking for our brother?” Isobel asked a while later, her voice loud in the otherwise silent room.

Alex stilled briefly before continuing his check. “I’ve looked through the records you sent me and I’ve been trying to narrow it down by the timing. For some reason, the day you and Max were brought to the orphanage wasn’t recorded so I can’t match up with the arrival dates of other kids but I know the general time frame you were there so I’m looking at other boys around your age who were there at the same time.” It wasn’t even a lie, Alex thought pleasantly. True, he wasn’t putting any extra effort to find someone he already knew the location of, but he _ was _ looking through the records to find out as much information about Michael and his childhood as he could. Michael didn’t remember much from those early days and Alex wanted to be able to give him any answers he might go looking for.

“Any luck?” Alex heard the hopeful note in her voice but couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth. There was still a chance that Michael wasn’t the missing third boy, however slim it was, and Alex didn’t want to give any of them false hope. It was bad enough that Michael was convinced Alex had found his family; he couldn’t imagine the heartbreak he’d suffer if he was wrong. 

Alex cleared his throat. “Uh, not yet. I’m still looking though.” Isobel didn’t answer and Alex let the conversation lag. Except of course, he was curious. “What- what are you expecting Isobel? It’s been twenty years…”

Isobel froze, her hand resting on a book as she sorted through them. “I don’t know, really. I just- my whole life I’ve known there were three of us and not having him around has always felt like a piece of me was missing. I want to be whole again, I guess. And I know that’s an unrealistic goal and way too much pressure to put on someone I don’t know but I just have this feeling like everything will click into place when I see him again.” She moved away from the bookshelf and wrapped her arms around her stomach. “Mostly I think I just want to know he’s okay. I don’t want to think that it’s only Max and I on this entire planet.”

Alex nodded. He’d heard something similar from Michael before, the burning desire to know that he was not alone. “We’ll find him, Isobel. I promise.”

She smiled sadly. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alex.” Alex started to reply but stopped himself and only gave her a sad smile of his own. 

“Alex?!” His head snapped up at Max’s yell. “Come look at this!”

Alex dropped whatever it was he was holding and hurried out the door, Isobel close on his heels. Max was standing in the shrubbery a few feet beyond the back patio. “What is it?”

Max tilted his head backwards and to his left. Alex looked in the direction indicated but didn’t see anything. He quickly made his way over nonetheless. “What?”

Max pointed at a plant a few feet away. Again, Alex looked but didn’t see anything. He exchanged a look with Isobel but she just shrugged, obviously not seeing it either. Max rolled his eyes and moved a small plant out of the way and revealed a small camera. 

Alex recognized it as standard surveillance equipment issued by the Air Force and his blood ran cold. Spying on a US citizen by a military official was illegal and yet here it was. Alex took in the blinking red light and smashed the camera with his cane without another thought. At this point, with all three of them clearly having found the camera, there was no point to subterfuge. 

“Okay.” His voice was firm. “Did you find anything else?” Max shook his head. “We’ll keep looking anyway. Make sure to clear the whole house. After that, I’ll get back to work breaking into their system. Once I’m in, I’ll be able to see how much footage they recorded.”

Max and Isobel got back to work immediately, a renewed sense of urgency spurring them on now that they had proof of being spied on. Alex paused a moment to retrieve the camera and make sure it was fully off before he too returned to the house.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. Between checking Max’s house, and then Isobel’s, and finally getting to work on the Project Shepherd security system, Alex was bleary-eyed and aching to fall into bed by the time his computer beeped at him.

His weariness fled the second he looked at the screen. He was in. Alex now had full access to all of his father’s files and-

_ No. _

**\- - - - - - - **

_ 2013 _

Alex watched his fellow airmen reunited with their families and tried hard not to feel sorry for himself. He’d already gotten texts from Maria and Liz welcoming him home and apologizing for not being able to cross the country to be there in person. He hadn’t expected any of his brothers and he’d honestly rather shoot his father in the face than have him welcome him home but part of him still ached to have someone there.

Mason rushed past him into his sister’s arms and Alex smiled with only a hint of sadness. The men he’d served with had become his brothers and he was truly happy for them to have people to welcome them home from their first deployment. It had been tougher than Alex had imagined.

He pulled out his phone as yet another family reunited next to him, hoping for a message from Michael. They’d exchanged numbers in Las Vegas, accepting that the third time was the charm and they might as well give in to whatever the universe had in store for them. It had been awkward at first, trying to keep up a conversation with a guy he barely knew outside of random motel rooms but it had turned into a blessing after he got sent overseas. Michael had become his constant; the one person who kept in touch almost daily. Little anecdotes, mostly. Lots of ranting about graduation and grad school applications. It was the touch of normal he needed to keep his head up, to remember that there was more than just the war outside his door.

Michael knew he was coming back today and while Alex hadn’t expected much, he had hoped to hear from him. But his phone stayed silent no matter how many times he checked it.

Eventually, Alex tired of standing alone in the middle of the crowd and he started making his way to the exit. He needed a drink, a shower, and sleep. Not necessarily in the order.

He had to dodge a few families and weave around running kids but eventually the exit was in sight. Alex was so focused on getting out the door that he almost completely missed the man standing just inside it. He had his head down and his phone in his hand, his foot scratching nervously at the floor. Every few seconds, his head would jerk up and he’d scan the crowd before immediately lowering it again.

Alex stopped in his tracks, unable to quite believe what he was seeing. A moment later, the head popped up again and Alex waited while his eyes roved the crowd. When he saw Alex, his whole body froze. Except for his eyes. His eyes alighted like he’d just seen something holy.

“Alex,” he breathed.

“Michael?” Alex returned. It wasn’t a question (of course he knew it was Michael) but it was in that Alex still couldn’t quite trust what his eyes and ears were telling him. “What are you-”

Michael had started moving as soon as Alex spoke but stopped halfway and ran a hand across the back of his neck. “Sorry. I know it was a bit forward or presumptuous or whatever but you said you were getting back today and I wanted to see you.” He paused and took in Alex’s dumbfounded expression. “Sorry,” he apologized again. “I should have asked you if it was okay to-” 

Alex closed the distance in two large steps and dropped his bag at Michael’s feet, his hands winding their way through Michael’s hair as he brought their lips together. Michael gripped his hips and pulled him close as he returned the kiss with fervor. When Alex pulled back to take a breath, Michael wound his arms around Alex’s back and hugged him tight.

“Hi,” Alex whispered into Michael’s neck. “It’s really good to see you.”

“Yeah?” Michael’s lips brushed his ear as he spoke.

“Yeah,” Alex assured him. “I wanted to see you too but I didn’t want to ask in case-” In case what Alex was feeling was one-sided. For as much as they’d spoken in the year since running into each in Vegas, neither one of them had ever mentioned the possibility of them being something more than pen pals. Even though they had a crazy connection (Michael had once called it cosmic) and even though the sex was amazing, they led very different lives in very different locations. He couldn’t expect anything from Michael more than what he’d already gotten. No matter how much he wanted more. 

“You should’ve asked,” Michael told him as he leaned back to look at Alex. “I wanted you to ask. It’s why I came.”

“I’m really glad you came,” Alex admitted.

Michael smile was brilliant and bright and Alex felt his lips turning up in response. “Me too.” He stooped to pick up Alex’s bag, groaning as he slung it over his shoulder. “So where to? You hungry?”

“Starving,” Alex answered even though moments before he hadn’t been.

“I passed by this diner on my way in,” Michael told him as they turned to leave. “In case you’re in the mood for some good ole American cuisine.”

Alex hummed. “Think they’ve got milkshakes?”

Michael eyed him. “You going to dip your fries in it if they do?”

Alex stared at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Are you saying you wouldn’t?” They’d had this debate a few months earlier when Alex was bemoaning military rations and aching for a taste of home. Michael had never tried it and refused to even consider the possibility of combining the two.

“Maybe I will,” Michael admitted. “Just this once. It’ll be just as disgusting as I imagine, I’m sure.”

“You might be surprised.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Michael mused out loud, tossing Alex’s bag in the back of an old truck. “I’m starting to get used to that though.”

**\- - - - - - -**

_ Present Day _

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” Alex chanted softly as he paced around his living room, the phone ringing in his ear. It went to voicemail and he immediately called back. “Pick up the damn phone, Michael.”

“-ex?” Michael’s voice was soft with sleep when he finally answered. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh thank god,” Alex released in a breath.

“What’s wrong?” Michael asked again, his voice suddenly clear. “Alex?”

“What did you wear to work today?” Alex asked, not answering Michael’s question.

There was a pause. “What?”

“Just answer the damn question, Michael,” Alex heard the frantic note in his own voice but he ignored it. He glanced at his laptop when Michael paused again; there was a surveillance shot of Michael outside his office building. He had on a pair of dark jeans and a blue button down shit, no tie. A dark jacket was slung over his arm and the new computer bag Alex had just given him for his last birthday hung from his shoulder.

“Uh, jeans and a blue shirt? And a dark brown jacket? Why?” Alex inhaled sharply. “Alex? What’s going on?”

Alex sat down heavily, his leg twinging as he pulled at the prosthetic. “I broke into the Project Shepherd files,” he admitted quietly.

“Project Shepherd?” Michael asked. “That’s the government conspiracy thing, right? That’s looking into aliens?”

“Yeah,” Alex ran a hand over his face and took a deep breath. “They have a file on you. You’re marked as a potential terrorist threat and there are surveillance photos in here. One of them is from today, Michael. They’re watching every move you make.” He skimmed through Michael’s file and froze when he found a picture of the two of them in Michael’s first apartment in D.C. It was almost two years old. “Son of a bitch.” He flipped through to find the oldest picture. It was of them kissing after Alex returned from his first deployment. His father had known about Michael the entire time. “Son of a bitch,” he said again.

“Alex? Alex!” Michael’s voice was increasingly worried as he kept calling Alex’s name.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Alex muttered as he looked through photos of Michael’s life. Of their life together. There were plenty of photos of Michael on his own, enough to show that he was under almost constant surveillance, but there was also a worrying number of pictures of the two of them together. It was clear from this that his father had only taken an interest in Michael because of his relationship with Alex. “Fuck.”

“Talk to me, Alex. What is going on?”

“He’s been spying on you since we started dating.”

“What? Who’s been spying on me?”

“My father,” Alex admitted wearily. He opened the reports on Michael to see if his father had confirmation of Michael’s origin. So far, nothing.

“Why would your father be spying on me? Why would-” Michael stopped. “Your father is running Project Shepherd, isn’t he?” Alex only hummed in agreement. “Jesus Christ, Alex, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I’m handling it,” Alex told him as he scoured Michael’s file. 

“Alex, stop looking at the damn file and talk to me,” Michael barked in his ear. Alex shoved the laptop away from him immediately. He could always look at it later. “Tell me what the hell is going on. And don’t leave anything out this time.”

Alex rubbed his forehead. “My family has been investigating the alien threat in Roswell since the crash in 1947. Currently, my father is in charge of Project Shepherd and has been tracking down reports of alien activity in Roswell. Mostly this came about because Max healed Liz after she was shot a few months ago. That seemed to set off a series of events that made my dad look extra close at everyone in town. Anyone without a clear tie to the town or to other humans came under suspicion. Max and Isobel are orphans who were found wandering the desert together so they went to the top of the suspect lists. Max is a cop here and their adopted parents are well known so he can’t move on them until he has proof but he’s set on getting it. He broke into their houses today and set up video surveillance. Max and Isobel were worried that he’d be going after the third alien found with them and that’s why they asked me to look for you. I want you to stay in D.C. so you are far away from my father and out of his reach but clearly that was a fool’s hope.” 

Michael was quiet while he processed Alex’s words. “That’s why you didn’t want me coming to Roswell with you, isn’t it?” Alex closed his eyes. “You knew your father was there and you didn’t want me near him.”

“Yes,” Alex confessed softly. “I didn’t know he was investigating aliens before I came here but you being with me would be enough to put you in danger from him and I couldn’t do that.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” Michael almost yelled. “Why did- fuck, Alex, it felt like you were breaking up with me.”

“I know, I’m sorry. That’s not what I intended at all.”

“Then why?”

“Because I couldn’t bring myself to admit that my father still terrifies me. I’m a grown ass man, I shouldn’t be afraid of him anymore.”

“That’s not how fear works, Alex,” Michael reminded him softly. “And yet you still went there.”

“Yeah, well, if he wants to come at me, I can hit back now. But I wouldn’t be able to stand it if he came after you.” He took a deep breath. “I’m just finishing up my service here, Michael, it won’t be for long.”

“Any time around that man is too long.” 

“I’ll be okay,” Alex promised him.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Alex.” Alex choked. “What?”

“Nothing,” Alex laughed lightly. “Just- Isobel said those exact words to me earlier today when I told her I’d find you.”

“Hmm, maybe we are related after all,” Michael mused lightly.

“Maybe,” Alex agreed. “I think you’ll like each other.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t wait to meet them.”

“They can’t wait to meet you,” Alex assured. “Just- just let me keep you safe, yeah? Let me take care of my father and this Project Shepherd bullshit before you come anywhere near him.”

Michael sighed. “Okay.”

Alex closed his eyes. “I may need more than a month.”

“Okay,” Michael agreed. “But keep me updated, okay? I don’t want you to keep things from me. Not about this.”

“I won’t. But in the meantime, I want you to be safe, okay? They’ve clearly got eyes on you so don’t do anything stupid. The files don’t mention anything about your powers so it’s possible my father’s just added you to the list because you’re in a relationship with me and I don’t want you to give him any reason to go after you directly. Just keep your head down.” He chuckled. “Spend a lot of time at work; they won’t go breaking into a government facility to get you, I don’t think.”

“I’m sorry, did you just tell me to spend more time at work? You? Encouraging my workaholic tendencies? What has the world come to?” Michael teased.

“Yeah, yeah, what can I say? I’d rather you be dead on your feet because you’re working too much than you be dead for real.”

“Fair enough. I promise to be good.”

“Thank you.”

They sat and listened to each other breathe until Alex caught sight of the clock. “Holy shit, Michael, it’s three o’clock in the morning.”

Michael chuckled. “Yeah, I noticed that.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“It’s okay. I’d rather you called than spent the night freaking out in that lonely cabin of yours.” He sighed. “But I really should grab a couple more hours of sleep before work.”

“Good night. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Michael replied, his voice already heavy with sleep as he hung up the phone.

Alex glanced at the time again before grabbing his laptop. He could sleep later. First, he needed to know exactly what his father had on Michael.

**\- - - - - - -**

_ 2014 _

Alex stared at the request form in front of him, unwilling to believe what he was doing. He was being relocated. That in itself wasn’t surprising, he’d known it was coming. What was surprising was the request.

He was allowed to request a specific posting. It wasn’t guaranteed but he was still able to put it in. It was due in an hour and two nights ago, Alex had looked up where Michael was going to grad school. There were two bases within reasonable driving distance from the school; Alex had listed both of them on the form.

He felt like an idiot requesting a three year posting just to be closer to Michael for a little while. Michael was set to graduate in a little over a year, it was hardly worth it to move closer when he was going to move away less than halfway through Alex’s post there. 

And yet…

Alex sent in the form. He hadn’t mentioned it to Michael yet, unwilling to admit what he was doing until he knew for sure if it was going to happen. But Michael had made the last big gesture, coming to see him when he returned from deployment not knowing if Alex wanted him there, so he figured it was his turn. If for some reason, Michael didn’t want him closer, well, it wasn’t like he was moving in with him. He was just moving closer. 

Travis AFB was only an hour’s drive from UC Berkeley; if he got the posting he’d be close enough for them to see each other on weekends. 

Alex worried over it for the entire six weeks it took to hear back from the head office. Every time he talked to Michael the words bubbled up in his chest, aching to spill out. He managed to hold them back, half afraid Michael might be upset (even though he knew he wouldn’t be) and half afraid to get their hopes up in case his request was denied. When he got the email about his new posting, he called Michael as soon as he read the subject line, before he even opened it up.

“Hey,” Michael greeted warmly. “I’m about to go into class. What’s up?”

“I got my new posting,” Alex told him. “And uh- I didn’t mention this earlier but I requested Travis.”

Michael paused. “Travis is like an hour away from here.”

“I know. Is that okay?”

“You’re relocating to Travis?” Alex could almost hear the smile in Michael’s voice and his own lips twitched in response.

“I, uh, I don’t know yet. I haven’t actually read the email,” Alex laughed nervously. “I wanted to talk to you while I did.”

Michael muttered something to someone on his end before replying to Alex. “Well? Open it! Where are you going?”

Alex clicked open the email and stared at it for a second. “Travis.”

“Yeah?” 

He laughed. “Yeah. I have two weeks to report to base.”

“And when are you done at Offutt?”

“My last day is Friday.” Today was Wednesday. It gave Alex two days to finish up his duties and pack up his apartment. “I’m supposed to use the two weeks to move and find someplace to live near base. Think you might be able to help me with that? I might need somewhere to crash while I look…”

“Oh I’m sure I can provide some assistance with that,” Michael laughed before sobering. “Fuck, Alex, you’re really coming out here?”

“Yeah. I really am.”

“I can’t-” A shout on Michael’s end cut him off. “Guerin! Class is starting! Let’s go!”

“Go to class,” Alex told him. “And call me later. We’ll figure this out.”

“Yeah okay. I’ll talk to you later. Love you,” Michael hung up.

Alex stared at his phone after the call went dead. It was the first time Michael had said those words to him but it had felt like an afterthought. Like they’d been saying it for years.

“Love you too,” he whispered to the phone with a stupid grin firmly in place.

**\- - - - - -**

_ Present Day _

Alex woke up to a pounding on his front door the next morning. He started to roll out of bed, stopping himself just before he could plant his feet on the floor when he remembered he couldn’t actually do that anymore. Pausing long enough to grab his crutches and his gun, he tucked the weapon into the waistband of his sweatpants and eased the bedroom door open.

“Open the damn door, Alex!” His visitor yelled followed by another round of pounding knocks. Alex froze at the sound. He hadn’t spoken to his brother in years but it was unmistakably Flint’s voice. “Alex!”

Alex quickly decided that if Flint was here to kill him he wouldn’t be knocking and hurried to pull the door open. Flint’s fist was already swinging for another knock and Alex had to duck to avoid getting punched in the face.

“Good morning to you, too,” he greeted warily.

Flint glared at him before he pushed the door open wider and stepped around Alex into the cabin. Alex grabbed the door and swung it shut. By the time he turned to face his brother, Flint was already removing his weapon and putting it on the table in open view.

“I’m not here for trouble, Alex,” he insisted as he held up his shirt and turned to show Alex he wasn’t hiding another gun. “But we need to talk.”

Alex leaned against the door, carefully taking his weight off one of the crutches so he could free his hand easily if need be. He didn’t remove his own weapon. “About what?”

“Project Shepherd.”

He wished he could be surprised, he really did. “What about it?”

Flint leveled him with an unimpressed look. “Don’t play dumb, Alex, it doesn’t suit you. Dad may be technologically inept but I’m not. I know you broke into our system last night.”

“What about it?” Alex’s hand itched for his gun but he held steady. Flint wasn’t holding a weapon, he couldn’t very well pull his own.

“You have no idea what you’re playing around with here,” Flint told him. “You think this is about your boyfriend?”

“Trust me, I really didn’t,” Alex admitted. “The last thing I expected when I cracked open your system was to see Michael labeled as a _ potential terrorist threat _,” he glared at Flint. “What the fuck has he done to deserve that? Be with me?” Flint looked away.

“I tried to talk Dad out of that, the others too,” he admitted.

“Oh great, so my whole family has been spying on me. Good to know.”

“Oh what did you expect, Alex? That Dad would actually let you just leave the family like that? You know better. You’re still a Manes and as far as he’s concerned, that means your actions reflect on him. Of course he was going to keep tabs,” Flint admonished.

“I expected shit like this from him. But not from you,” Alex hated to confess. He knew his brothers were cut from the same cloth as his father but he’d held out hope that they weren’t quite as bad.

“Alex,” Flint sighed. “You’re not a part of this shit, okay? You should stay that way.”

“And leave Michael to the mercy of Dad’s whims? Not a chance.”

Flint rubbed his forehead in a manner entirely reminiscent of Alex’s own habits. It was disconcerting to realize he shared mannerisms with his brother despite their years apart. “Look, I’ll get Michael out of the system and get the threat label removed. I’ll even keep an eye out in case Dad adds him back in. I know he doesn’t deserve this shit, okay? I do.” He paused. “He seems like a good guy.”

“Don’t,” Alex warned. “Don’t talk about him like you know him.”

Flint held up his hands as if to say he was backing off. “Seriously, though, leave Project Shepherd alone. Dad’s obsessed with it and he won’t hesitate to take you down if he thinks you’re a threat.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “A threat to his Project?”

“Yes,” Flint agreed simply. 

“What is he doing with them?” Alex asked. Flint opened his mouth, probably to deny knowledge of what he was asking, but Alex talked over him. “What does he do with the aliens after he captures them?”

Flint’s jaw ticked as he clenched his teeth. “There’s a team of scientists who ascertain the threat level of the specimen and decide if it needs to be eliminated for human safety.”

Alex felt his stomach drop. “Right. And do they ever _ ascertain _ anything but? Or is every single _ specimen _ eliminated?”

“They’re threats, Alex. They might look like humans but they aren’t. They’re an invading species and we need to protect the human race from them.”

“Wow. You really drank the kool-aid, haven’t you?” Alex shook his head. 

“Don’t be naive, Alex. I don’t agree with Dad’s methods but just because I don’t like how he goes about it doesn’t mean he’s wrong.” Flint put his hands on his hips. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

Alex didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Flint grabbed his gun and headed for the door. Alex didn’t move from where he was pressed up against it.

“I’m going to take down Project Shepherd,” Alex promised. “If you’re involved, I’ll take you down with it.”

“Alex-”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Alex moved out of the way and pulled the door open. Flint stood there for a moment, obviously wanting to say something more but he left without a word, shaking his head as he skipped down the stairs. 

“Alex,” he called as he was getting in his car. Alex held the door open a smidge. “I meant what I said about Michael. He seems like a good guy. I’m happy for you.” Flint closed his car door before Alex could say anything else. The second he pulled away, Alex locked his front door and hurried to his computer.

If Flint had any brains at all, he would’ve kicked Alex out of the system before he showed up on his doorstep but there was always a chance he might not have. 

He let out a string of curses when he saw that he had, in fact, been locked out. Alex spent the next two hours finding new ways in until suddenly the system opened up for him like he’d been invited. A private message pinged in the corner of his screen, a message from inside the Project Shepherd system.

_ Don’t be stupid _.

Alex stared at it uncomprehendingly for a few moments before realizing it was from Flint. He’d given Alex full access to the entire system.

Everything he could possibly want to know about Project Shepherd was now at his fingertips.

**\- - - - - - -**

_ 2015 _

Alex waited for the call to connect. They’re last two calls had ended abruptly, first because of a technical issue on Alex’s end and then because he’d mistimed it with Michael’s schedule and the other man had had to deliver a presentation only a few minutes after he’d called. It had been three months since Alex shipped out and he missed Michael’s face. They’d exchanged emails regularly, but this was Alex’s first chance at a video chat and he really hoped it worked out this time.

“Hey darlin’,” Michael’s voice came through before the video feed connected. Alex smiled.

“Hey, yourself. I can’t see you.”

“That’s okay, I can see you. Nice dimples.” Alex turned his head to hide said dimples.

“It’s not okay, I miss your face.” As if summoned by his words, the video connected and there was Michael. Shirtless in bed with his glasses on. “_ Fuck _, that’s not fair.”

Michael laughed and rubbed a hand through his chest hair. “No?”

Alex looked over his shoulder around the crowded room. No one was paying attention to him, all too busy with their own phone calls, but anyone could look over at any time and see his screen. He turned back to Michael and hunched forward a bit to try and block anyone’s view. This sight was for his eyes only.

“So. How’s it going?” Michael asked. “You look tan as hell.”

Alex smiled. “Lots of sun over here.”

“What happened to the desk job?” Michael asked, his face creased with worry. “I thought the benefit of you being a codebreaker is that you didn’t have to be out in the field.”

Alex shrugged. “There are different responsibilities over here.”

“Oh good. Clearly I haven’t been worrying enough,” Michael frowned.

Alex desperately wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry at all but well, he was in the middle of a warzone. “I’m staying out of trouble,” he promised instead.

Michael barked a laugh. “You?” Alex just stuck his tongue out in response.

“Enough about me, my life is boring,” Alex changed the subject gracelessly. “How’s life back home?”

Michael smiled at the word home, just as he always did. “Things are good. Finals are coming up so Jess and I have been studying like crazy. She’s convinced she’s gonna fail.”

Alex scoffed. “Jess could pass her exams in her sleep, blindfolded. She knows her shit.”

“I know,” he sighed. “She makes me feel so inadequate.”

Alex snorted. “Yeah, inadequacy is not one of your flaws, trust me.”

“Oh?” Michael raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t fish for compliments, it doesn’t suit you.”

“Yes it does,” Michael protested. “Everything suits me.” He paused and put on an exaggerated thinking face. “Except maybe clothes. What do you think?” He held his phone out further to show Alex more of his body. “Should I put clothes on?”

Alex felt a flush rise up the back of his neck and on his cheeks. “Never.”

Michael grinned and pulled the phone down closer to his face. “I promise when you get home I won’t wear clothes for a week.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Alex cleared his throat. “What else? How’s Thompson handling being all alone on base?” For a few minutes, Alex let himself get lost in the timbre of Michael’s voice as he updated him on everything he’d missed the last few months. 

Eventually, the communications attendant gave the two minute warning and Alex cut Michael off mid-story about his roommate’s ex-boyfriend’s cat. “Okay, spill.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “I’ve _ been _ spilling.”

“About the interview,” Alex clarified. “How’d it go? Have you heard?” When Alex had been deployed, Michael had been preparing for the interview of his life; an internship at NASA headquarters in D.C. Alex knew he’d already done it but Michael’s emails had been mum on the subject.

Michael looked away from the phone and Alex’s heart sank. “Bad?” He asked, worried.

Michael licked his lips and shook his head. “I got the internship.”

“What?” Alex’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? Michael, that’s amazing! Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Michael smiled brightly before it started to dim.

“What’s wrong?” It was his dream job. What could Michael be upset about?

“Internship starts in June, right after graduation,” Michael explained. Alex’s stomach dropped. He should have thought of that, really, he should’ve. He was set to return to the US in August. Back to Travis AFB. In California. 

“Hey,” he said softly. “We knew this would happen. You weren’t going to stay at Berkeley forever.”

“I know,” Michael agreed. “But I wanted to be here when you got back.”

“I’ll have a few weeks leave after. I’ll come to you. You can show me around D.C.”

“Alex-”

“We’ve done long distance before, we can do it again,” Alex promised him. “We’ll be fine.” He paused. “But you won’t be if you turn down that internship.”

“Okay.”

“Manes!” Alex turned to see the communications attendant signaling him to wrap it up. He nodded at him then turned to Michael.

“I’ve gotta go. I love you. Take the damn internship.”

Michael smiled. “Love you, too.” He blew Alex a kiss as the call cut off.

**\- - - - - - - **

_ Present Day _

“Hey, stranger,” Maria’s voice carried easily across the low din of the early crowd. Alex smiled at her in greeting as he walked over and reached across the bar for a quick hug. “How have you been? You’re so busy lately, I’ve hardly seen you.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Alex apologized as he settled onto a stool. “Just, helping out some friends and the project’s taking longer than I’d hoped.” It had in fact been almost six weeks since that first meeting with Max and Isobel. Michael was getting restless, stuck in D.C. waiting for Alex to deal with his father and Alex was getting crankier by the day. Being on the outs with Michael, even just a little, and the overbearing presence of Jesse Manes was proving exhausting. Flint was helping a little, surprisingly, but Alex still hadn’t found what he was looking for. He needed irrefutable proof that he could take to his father’s superiors that Jesse was abusing his position on the Project and he’d be able to tank his father’s career and hopefully get him locked up, safely away from Michael and Max and Isobel.

“You look tired,” Maria remarked, not unkindly. 

Alex shrugged. “Like you said, I’ve been busy.”

“I know you want to help them but you do need to take some time for yourself every now and then,” Maria urged. “How’s that boyfriend of yours? Maybe you should go see him. Or he could come here?” She slid a beer across the counter. “You look like you need a break, Alex.”

“I know. I’ll take one when this is over.”

Maria hummed, seemingly unconvinced. She left to serve another customer but quickly returned, this time bracing herself on her crossed arms halfway across the counter. “How’s the boyfriend?” She asked again. “Liz mentioned there might be trouble?”

“You and Liz are talking about my relationship?” Alex raised an eyebrow.

“We’re worried about you, Alex. We were trying to think about what could be stressing you out so much and she mentioned you might be having relationship problems. We weren’t gossiping.”

He sighed. “I know. Sorry. I’m just wound up and not sleeping well. Michael and I are fine. We just- long distance is hard. We used to be better at it but lately we got used to living together so me being here while he’s still in D.C. is just- it’s hard.”

“When will you see each other next?”

“He wants to come here, wants to meet you and Liz,” Alex confessed. “I’m just not sure it’s safe, with everything that’s going on.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe?” Maria asked. “I know we’re all worried about Max and Isobel but your boyfriend should be fine.”

Alex didn’t have the heart to confess that there was a good chance his father would do something to Michael just because he was Alex’s boyfriend. He’d been careful not to let the full truth of his childhood be revealed, not even to Maria or Liz, and he didn’t want to do it now. They knew Jesse Manes was an awful father; they didn’t know he was a sadistic abusive son of a bitch.

“Yeah, maybe,” Alex replied. “I want to see him and I want him to see Roswell and to meet you guys, I’m just uneasy about it right now. Hopefully once everything gets settled he can come.”

“Well I hope so too,” Maria smiled. “I’d love to meet…”

Alex smiled. “His name’s Michael.”

“I’d love to meet Michael.” She started to stand up before she leaned back in conspiratorially. “He’s hot, right? I don’t even know your type, but I’m assuming he’s hot.”

He laughed and pulled out his phone. The first picture he found was a selfie Michael had sent him that morning. Michael had clearly just woken up, his eyes bleary and his curls haywire. He was shirtless and there was a pout on his pretty lips. The text with it simply said, _ My bed’s cold. You should fix that. _

Alex scrolled for a different picture. The one he chose was a selfie he’d taken the day he left for Roswell. Well, Michael had taken it with his phone. He’d hugged Michael from behind and pressed a kiss to the side of his face; Michael had taken the photo without him noticing but it was now one of Alex’s favorites. He handed the phone to Maria.

She took one look at it and let out a low whistle. “Damn, Alex. Wow, you hit the jackpot.”

“I know,” he smiled around his beer as he took a sip. She laughed and handed the phone back. 

“I’m glad he makes you happy.” She tapped the bottom of his chin lightly. “You always smile when you talk about him.”

Alex smiled now, unable to help himself as he looked down at the photo. 

“Alex!” Liz called as she rushed through the front door. He whirled around as she almost crashed into him. “They took Max. And Isobel isn’t answering her phone.”

Maria rushed around the bar as Alex steadied Liz. “Slow down. Who took Max?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. This SUV pulled up and two guys got out to talk to Max. I was across the street waiting for him because we were going to lunch and I saw one of them touch his neck and then he just collapsed. They put him in the car and then they were gone before I could get there.”

Alex nodded and took a deep breath, letting his professional mask fall into place. This wasn’t a time to be worried about his friend, he needed to stay on mission. “Alright, let’s go back to my cabin and I’ll check the system, see if I can find out where they might have taken him. Maria, can you keep trying Isobel’s phone? And talk to Kyle, see if you two can track her down. She may just have her phone turned off for a meeting, we shouldn’t automatically assume the worst. If she’s okay, get her out to the cabin and never leave her alone. Liz, you come with me.” The girls nodded and Alex shepherded Liz out the door.

“I’ll follow you in case we need two cars,” Liz volunteered when they got to the parking lot. Alex nodded in agreement and quickly got into his own car. He turned the ignition and pulled out his phone to call Michael.

“Hey, I’m a little busy right now, can I call you back in like-”

“You’re at work?” Alex cut him off.

Michael paused. “You told me to work more, remember? You don’t get to get mad-”

Alex let out a breath. “You’re in the building?”

“Yes? Alex, what’s going on?”

“Someone took Max and might have taken Isobel and I’m going to go find them and get them back but I really need to not be worrying about you while I do that, so please just stay where you are, okay?”

“Alex-”

“I will get them back,” he promised.

“Okay. I’ll stay here. The couch in the break room has been calling my name all day anyway.”

“Thank you. I’ll keep you posted.”

He hung up before Michael could say anything more and quickly pulled out of the lot. Liz was way ahead of him already and they were racing against a ticking clock. Alex hadn’t mentioned it to Liz but the records he’d found indicated that specimens were usually eliminated less than 12 hours after capture. After the initial crash survivors were used for experimental and research purposes, Project Shepherd dedicated only so much time to determining the threat of a given specimen; they didn’t want to leave the alien alive any longer than necessary. 

If his father _ had _ taken Max, and possibly Isobel, Alex needed to find their holding location _ now _.

**\- - - - - - -**

_ 2016 _

A crash from the other room made Alex roll out of bed. His feet hit the floor before he was even fully awake and he had to spend a moment reorienting himself. 

He shook his head and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he took in his surroundings. It wasn’t the first time he’d been to Michael’s new apartment in D.C. but it was still a little disorienting to wake up in his bedroom. There was another loud bang from the other room and Alex finally went to investigate.

He made it two steps out of the bedroom before stopping in his tracks. Alex rubbed at his eyes again, sure that he was seeing things. When that didn’t clear anything up he pinched the inside of his elbow, hard. It hurt like a bitch and so Alex had to concede that maybe he was awake after all.

That didn’t make it any easier to accept what he was seeing.

In the kitchen, not ten feet in front of him, Michael stood at the center of a highly localized, impossibly controlled tornado of breakfast food and dishes. He was standing at the stove flipping a pancake while next to him, the orange juice poured itself into two glasses, only a tiny bit splashing over the sides. Opposite him, a sponge was running over a dirty pan while the spatula towel dried itself off. The oven beeped and a moment later the door opened and a sheet full of bacon flew out and rested on the counter. 

Michael hadn’t moved from his spot at the stove. He had earbuds in and was bopping his head to the music but his attention was seemingly focused on the pancakes, oblivious to everything else.

When the orange juice finished pouring, he plated the pancake and scooped the bottle up. To reach the fridge he had to turn around and face Alex. Alex waited breathlessly to see what would happen when he did.

  
He wasn’t disappointed. Michael turned and yanked the fridge door open before catching sight of Alex staring at him slack jawed. He froze, the bottle slipping from his grasp. The pan crashed into the sink while the drying spatula and towel hit the floor. Behind him, the bacon that begun to plate itself fell limply back onto the baking sheet. 

“Alex,” Michael breathed, his whole body tensed and ready to run.

Alex looked at him and saw the fear lining every inch of his body and he forced himself to relax. “Morning,” he greeted. “Breakfast ready?”

Michael swallowed thickly, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “What?”

Alex pulled out a chair at the table and eased into it. “Breakfast ready yet?”

Michael blinked at him a few times before glancing around the kitchen as if seeing it for the first time. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, just give me a second.” He turned the stove off and grabbed the orange juice. When he set the glasses on the table he hesitated. Alex didn’t say anything and after a beat, Michael turned back to grab the food. 

Alex stayed quiet all through breakfast, his mind busy going over every interaction he’d ever had with Michael to see if he’d somehow missed something. He couldn’t think of anything but the level of control Michael showed told him this wasn’t something new. Whatever powers Michael had, he’d clearly had them for a while.

When they finished eating, Michael silently cleared the table and washed up. Alex usually helped him but he was too lost in thought to even notice the dishes were gone.

“So,” Alex finally said after Michael sat back down. “What?”

Michael played with his fingers, his eyes glued to the table. “What do you want to know?”

“Uh,” Alex blinked in surprise, “everything? What? How? How long? Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

“Ok, um, I have telekinesis. I’ve had it my whole life, or as long as I can remember anyway. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid of scaring you off.”

Alex stood up and rounded the table. Gently, he placed his foot on the bottom rung of the chair and pushed it away from the table before settling himself in Michael’s lap. “You could never scare me off. I’m not going anywhere. Not after all the trouble we’ve been through.” Michael had a look on his face like he didn’t quite believe him so Alex leaned in and kissed him. He poured all his love for Michael into the kiss and didn’t let Michael pull away until he was good and ready for it to end. “I love you, you dumbass,” he told him. 

“Love you, too,” Michael whispered. He pressed his forehead to Alex’s. “Wanna hear the best part?” Alex hummed. “I’m an alien.”

Alex pulled back to look him in the eye. “What?” Michael shrugged and tried to look away but Alex kept meeting his eyes. “I’m not scared, Michael. Just confused.”

“When I was about 7, I woke up in this pod thing in a cave in the desert. I had no memories before then and I couldn’t speak. We wandered the desert for two days before someone found us and we got placed in an orphanage.”

“We?”

He nodded. “There were three of us. The other two, a boy and a girl about the same age as me, were adopted a few weeks after we were found. I was more of a ‘troubled child’ and I ended up getting sent to a different orphanage and from there I was passed around until I just left.” That part Alex knew. Michael had had a difficult childhood in the system before he ran away at the age of 15 and got his GED. “Anyway, before I learned English, before I really learned to talk even, I knew this other language. Bits and pieces of it have stuck with me but I forgot most of it when my brain sort of switched to English about a year after I woke up. It’s not any human language Alex, and believe me I’ve checked.” He sighed. “I used to be able to feel them, the other two. It’s like they were in my head somehow. Over the years that feeling faded until it disappeared entirely. I don’t even know where they are now.”

“Shit, Michael, I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Alex.”

“I’m sorry you’ve been alone with this all this time.”

Michael shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

Alex slid off his lap and stood up. When Michael didn’t move, he grabbed his hand and led him back to the bedroom before falling on the bed and pulling Michael down with him. They spent a few moments getting comfortable but finally Michael had his head on Alex’s chest and Alex’s fingers were carding through his hair.

After that, the words came spilling out of Michael. His fear at being discovered, his terror at realizing he was essentially alone in the world, his unending curiosity about where he came frame, his thirst for answers. It explained so much about him that Alex felt like the missing piece had been found in an almost finished puzzle.

Michael was an alien.

And that was ok.

**\- - - - - - **

_ Present Day _

It took Alex four hours and twenty-three minutes to locate the Project Shepherd command center; the defunct base his father had been meeting Kyle at was merely a secondary location while the primary facility was almost two hours outside of Roswell. By the time he pulled up outside, half a plan formulating in his brain, it had been over eight hours since Max was abducted and an unknown number of hours since Isobel was taken. They’d scoured Roswell for her to no avail so Alex had to assume that his father had them both.

He’d placed a call to the general in direct command of Project Shepherd and emailed everything he’d found on his father’s unsanctioned behavior but he wasn’t sure if it would be enough to get him removed from his post let alone court martialed. The General hadn’t been impressed when they spoke on the phone but he’d promised to look over the materials Alex sent over, if only because it was Jesse Manes’ own son calling to report on him.

Alex waited a few minutes to see if the General would call back but when the phone stayed silent he got out of the car and pulled his gun out. He had no way of knowing for sure how many people were inside and he had no backup; it was by far the stupidest plan he’d ever come up with. If it hadn’t been Max and Isobel, if it hadn’t been Michael’s family, inside that building, Alex would have spent a few more precious minutes putting together a reasonable plan or ensuring he had proper protection but he couldn’t take the chance that his father would kill either of them before he could get there.

Maria, Liz, and Kyle were parked a few miles away in case he needed help but none of them were fit to walk into a combat situation and Alex could never in good conscience ask them to. Which meant he was on his own.

He didn’t bother hiding from the cameras as he approached the front door. By now, he was sure his father knew of his involvement anyway. If he didn’t, well, Alex wanted him to know.

The entry codes had been stored in their system and Alex had double checked them before he left the cabin so he was able to essentially stroll right in. There was no one waiting for him on the other side but Alex took a few moments to clear the room anyway, just to make sure there were surprises.

When he deemed it safe, he crept slowly down the hallway, following the blueprints he’d memorized until he found himself in the middle of an abandoned, obviously repurposed cell block. What had once been standard cells with iron gates now had reinforced glass doors. All of them stood open, the cells having been empty for years, but Alex knew they had all once held survivors of the 1947 crash. Michael’s family had been here, under Alex’s family’s thumb for decades. 

The thought made him sick.

Almost as sick as the man standing in the middle of the room, a gun held loosely in one hand. It was pointed at the floor for the moment but Alex knew it would soon be pointed at his head.

“Hello, Dad,” he greeted. “Fancy running into you here.”

“Alex,” Jesse replied. “You really need to learn to mind your own business.”

Alex scoffed. “Sorry, I learned how to spy on my family from you.” 

Jesse shook his head. “You always were a disappointment, Alex. I thought, maybe when you joined the Air Force, you would step up and truly be a part of this family but you couldn’t even manage that.”

“Thank god,” Alex couldn’t help but say. “I think I’d rather die than truly be a part of your family.” Even as the words left his mouth, Alex knew his father wouldn’t hesitate to make them a reality.

“So be it,” Jesse sighed heavily, like Alex had managed to let him down one last time. He raised his gun but so did Alex. They stared across the room at each other, both suddenly hesitant. They both knew that Alex was the better shot with Jesse’s eyesight fading with age, but they both also knew that Alex was a reluctant shot; he wouldn’t pull the trigger until he absolutely had to. Right now, there was still a chance that he wouldn’t have to.

“Where are Max and Isobel Evans?” Alex asked. They weren’t in any of the cells which left two options; either they were being subjected to Project Shepherd’s scientists or they had already been killed. Both options were awful but one was definitely better than the other. “Are they alive?”

“Don’t worry about them, Alex. They’re of no concern to you.”

“They’re my friends,” he protested. “I grew up with them, for fuck’s sake. They aren’t a threat to anyone.”

“They’re an invasive species,” Jesse argued. “They’re only purpose to being here on this planet is to infiltrate and eradicate the human race. The fact that you fell for their lies is only proof that they are a threat. You aren’t stupid, Alex.” The might have been the first compliment his father ever paid him. It made Alex feel sick to his stomach. He shifted his grip on his gun and tried to move towards cover. “If they can fool you, they can fool anyone.” Jesse continued. “I’m doing a service to all of humanity in eliminating a threat to our species. You’re too soft to see what needs to be done.” He shook his head and shifted his grip and Alex knew he was about to pull the trigger. 

He started to fire off his own shot first but stopped with his finger halfway. No matter the situation, killing his own father was unthinkable. 

Two loud shots split the silence, the sound reverberating around the concrete room. 

Jesse Manes fell to the ground as a bullet whizzed by Alex’s ear. He felt the heat of it as a sharp pain split down the side of his head. 

Alex fell into a crouch and pressed his hand to his head and it came away wet with blood. He stared at his hand with shock; his father had shot him in the head. He’d been off by an inch, though.

At that thought, Alex jerked his head towards his father, gun held at the ready. But Jesse was lying in a pool of his own blood, his eyes staring unseeing at the ceiling with a neat hole in the center of his forehead.

“You okay?” Alex spun and pointed his gun at the newcomer standing on the walkway above him.

“Flint? What-”

Flint jerked his head. “Come on. The Evans’ are this way.” He disappeared through a doorway without waiting for Alex’s response.

Alex took a moment to stare at his father’s body before he turned and followed after his brother.

“You killed him,” he accused mildly as he caught up to him.

In front of him, Flint flinched. “He was going to kill you.” He said it simply, like that was all the explanation needed. Alex disagreed but he knew this wasn’t the time for this discussion.

“Where are Max and Isobel? Are they okay?”

“They’re alive,” Flint admitted guardedly. “Okay might be a stretch but if you get them out of here now, they should be okay eventually.”

Alex didn’t ask anymore questions as they wound their way through the hallways.

“Captain Manes!” Both of the brothers stopped and turned at the new voice. Alex put his finger on the trigger but kept the gun at his side as Flint dealt with the newcomer. The airman, a Staff Sergeant by his uniform, looked between the two brothers and hesitated.

“What is it?” Flint barked.

The Sergeant held out a piece of paper. “Communication for you, sir. From the General.”

Flint took it without a word and dismissed the other man. He hesitated, throwing Alex another questioning look, before ultimately departing. Only when he was gone did Flint open the paper to read it. After a moment, he snorted and handed it to Alex. “It’s for you.”

Alex raised an eyebrow in question but Flint just waved the paper at him until he took it.

_ Attn: Captain Flint Manes _

_ Chief Master Sergeant Jesse Manes has been relieved from duty effective immediately. Project Shepherd is now under the command of Captain Alex Manes. _

It was signed,

_ General James Humphries _

Alex stared at it wide-eyed. He read it over again, and then again for a third time, before he looked up at Flint. “What?”

Flint almost laughed as he held a hand out down the hallway. “After you, sir.”

Alex blinked at him before reading the missive again. “Uh, okay. Let’s go get them.”

**\- - - - - - -**

_ 2017 _

Alex only missed pelting Michael in the head by the use of the man’s powers. 

“Bad day, huh?” Michael asked mildly as he closed the door behind him. Alex knew he should probably apologize but he didn’t feel like it just now.

“I’m fine.”

“Bullshit,” Michael denied mildly. He took a seat at the end of Alex’s bed. There was a perfectly good chair two feet away but Michael never used it unless he had to, ultimately preferring to share Alex’s bed however he would allow. “What did the doctors say?”

“They can’t decide if they’re going to release me or not. On the one hand, there’s no reason for me to still be here but on the other hand, they won’t release me unless I have someone to help me at home.”

“So what’s the problem?”

Alex stared at him. “I have no one to help me at home?”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Michael leaned back and braced a hand on the bed by Alex’s left foot. His thumb started rubbing idle circles on Alex’s ankle. It felt nice but it mostly reminded Alex that Michael should be sitting on his right leg right now. He jerked his leg out of Michael’s reach and Michael let him.

“They want to send me _ home _, Michael. Back to my apartment at Travis. And I know you have super special powers but you cannot be on two sides of the country at the same damn time.”

“Why do you have to go to Travis?” Michael asked, ignoring Alex’s snark. “You’re supposed to get a new posting right about now, right? And besides, you just got back from deployment so you should have leave. Either way, why do you have to go back there? Why can’t you stay here?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “That’s not the way it works.”

“Can you ask? You can request postings, why not request Andrews? That way you’d stay in D.C. and you can keep doing your physical therapy here at Walter Reed.”

“Michael,” Alex groaned.

“Just fucking ask, Alex.” Michael finally lost his practiced calming tone. “I know the Air Force is a steaming pile of dicks but you just lost your damn leg. The very fucking least they can do is give you a posting that is conducive to your recovery.”

Alex took a deep breath before he could blow up at Michael. Again.

There was a sharp knock on the door as it opened and Dr. Krovecky stepped in. The doctor had been great all through Alex’s surgery and immediate recovery but the last few days had soured Alex’s opinion of the man.

“Captain Manes, Michael,” Dr. Krovecky greeted. “We need to discuss your release. Unfortunately we are a very busy hospital and we need the bed. So, let’s talk about what we need to do to get you set up at home.” He pulled a chair over and settled in.

“Is there any way to get Alex relocated?” Michael asked before Alex could say anything. “He was at the end of his posting at Travis and was scheduled to be relocated following this last deployment. Who should we talk to about getting him set up at Andrews?”

“Michael,” Alex hissed at him. Michael ignored him, his attention fixed on the doctor.

Dr. Krovecky looked between them. “I think that’s an excellent idea, frankly. From what you’ve told me Captain Manes, you live alone and have little support at your residence at Travis. I can get you in touch with the requisite officials to file that paperwork, but I would say that it shouldn’t be a problem. In my experience, soldiers coming off major injuries such as yours are shown more leniency in their assignments. Since Andrews is closer to your medical care and your support system,” he nodded to Michael, “I imagine your request would be approved. In any case, you should have at least another month before you will be asked to report for light desk duty. If you are intending to stay in this area, I can go ahead and process your discharge paperwork.”

Alex stared at the man. For some reason, he hadn’t honestly thought he could stay in D.C. The past few months with Michael by his side had felt like stolen time. All the while Michael had been supporting him through his initial rehab, Alex had been silently preparing himself for having to do it without him.

When he didn’t answer, Michael turned to Dr. Krovecky. “We’re going to talk it over. How soon do you need the bed?”

“Take the rest of the day,” Dr. Krovecky replied. “Ideally, I’d like to release him tomorrow.” He stood and soon they were left alone.

“Alex?” Michael reached for his hand. “Are you okay with this?”

“You live in a fourth floor walk-up,” Alex reminded him. “I’m not good with stairs.”

Michael ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. Alex’s eyes narrowed; it was a classic tell that Michael had done something. Bad or good, Alex wasn’t sure yet, but he was definitely hiding something.

“What did you do?”

“I moved?” It came out like a question.

“You what? When?”

“A few weeks ago,” Michael admitted. Alex had been stuck in a hospital bed for almost two months now. Which meant Michael had moved after Alex’s surgery. Which meant-

“Why did you move?”

“I lived in a fourth floor walk-up.”

“Michael.”

“Alex.” Michael met his eyes. “The new place has an elevator. If the elevator’s not working, the apartment’s on the second floor anyway so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. It’s not quite downtown so it’s a quieter street. I had some guys from work help me move and Wilkins and Mason came and helped while they were in town. It’s all set up. Of course, if you don’t want to, I won’t pressure you to move in with me but, fuck Alex, move in with me. I want us to live together and I want to be able to be there for you.”

“Michael-” Alex stopped and took a breath. “You can’t play nursemaid. You have a demanding job, you can’t just-”

“I already cleared it with Rachel. I can borrow leave from next year and work half days. Some days I might even be able to work remotely. However it shapes up, I’ll make it work.”

Alex stared at him, almost unable to believe what he was saying. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Michael’s jaw dropped. “I was expecting more of a fight, honestly. You don’t usually like admitting you need help.”

Alex shook his head. “I’m tired of fighting with you. And I do need help, that’s unavoidable at this point. So yeah. Let’s do it. I’ll see if Thompson can pack up my stuff in California and send it to me but I think I’ve got clothes at your place anyway so yeah.”

Michael smiled and leaned in for a kiss. He tried to keep it light but Alex sank into it. Since his surgery he’d been touchy about Michael touching him and showing him affection but right now, Alex didn’t care about that. He was moving in with his boyfriend, dammit, he was going to kiss him. 

Michael let out a surprised grunt as Alex deepened the kiss but he quickly got with the program, his hands cupping Alex’s face as he drew the kiss out.

Alex gripped the collar of Michael’s shirt when they parted. “We’re going to be okay. I’m going to be okay.”

Michael made an affronted noise. “Don’t sell us short, darlin’, we’re going to be fucking amazing.” He kissed Alex again. “And so are you. I promise.”

**\- - - - - - -**

_ Present Day _

Flint led Alex to a set of double steel doors and pulled them wide. Inside, Max and Isobel were handcuffed and strapped to chairs. Two doctors stood over them, one drawing blood from Max’s arm. Around them, four soldiers stood at the ready, fingers on the triggers.

“Stand down!” Alex ordered before he’d even fully entered the room. Everyone stopped and turned to look at him. One soldier raised his weapon and aimed it at Alex. The two doctors stepped back to make sure they were out of the line of fire.

“Alex,” Isobel gasped. At Isobel’s recognition, the other three soldiers aimed their weapons at Alex.

Flint stepped up next to Alex and each of the men hesitated. “This is Captain Manes,” he spoke firmly. “Effective immediately, General Humphries has relieved my father of his duty and placed Captain Manes in command of Project Shepherd.” He stood at attention next to Alex and slowly the others followed suit. 

“Release them,” Alex ordered. No one moved. “Now.”

The soldiers exchanged looks but didn’t move. Behind them, the two scientists crept forward. “Sir?” One of them was bold enough to speak. “These are dangerous prisoners. To release them would be to invite grievous injury upon our persons.”

Max started struggling to glare at the man. The effect was sullied by the fact that Max couldn’t actually move and so he ended up glaring at the nothing out of the corner of his eye but Alex appreciated his attempt.

“I believe I gave an order,” Alex kept his voice calm and firm. “Release them both. Now.”

The soldier closest to Isobel inhaled sharply and stowed his weapon before turning and undoing her cuffs. As he started releasing the straps binding her chest and legs, the man opposite him knelt to undo Max’s bindings. 

“You cannot be serious!” This time it was the other scientist. Their names were stitched on their lab coats but Alex couldn’t be bothered to read them.

“You’re dismissed,” he told them both. “Remove yourselves from this room.”

They both started to protest but Alex nodded to the remaining two soldiers and they were both soon escorted out. By this time, Max and Isobel were both technically free but neither were moving. 

“What’s wrong with them?” 

“Tired,” Isobel moaned. 

“They were given sedatives laced with a formula that inhibits their abilities,” Flint told him. “It should wear off in a few hours but until then they should be functionally useless.”

Alex stared at him. “They’re functionally useless and you still handcuffed them and tied them to the chair?” Flint stared back levelly, not giving in.

“Yes. It’s protocol.”

Alex shook his head. “Your protocol is bullshit.” He turned to the other two. “Help them up. A vehicle will be ready outside in ten minutes. You will escort them to it.”

“Sir,” one of them started to say. “They’re-”

“I know who they are. I know what they are.” Alex squared his shoulders and the soldier pulled himself to attention. “General Humphries gave me command precisely because Chief Master Sergeant Manes’ methods and protocol were appalling and a gross overreach of his duty. These people have committed no crime and done nothing to deserve the treatment you have shown them.”

“They’re literally not human. Sir.” The address was clearly added as an afterthought and Alex narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t care,” he admitted simply. “Whatever you think of them, we do not need to debase ourselves by acting like simple minded predators. We are not animals, Lieutenant. We will not act like it. Now. Escort them to the front entrance. If they arrive at their vehicle in any condition worse than what they are in now, I will ensure you suffer as they did.” He paused to make eye contact with each of them before stepping aside. Without further complaint, each of the soldiers picked up one of the twins and began to slowly make their way from the room. 

When they’d crossed the threshold, Alex pulled out his phone and called Liz.

“Are you okay?” Her worry was clear in voice.

“I’m fine. Max and Isobel are alive. I’m having them brought to the front entrance of the building. Meet them there as soon as you can. There are two soldiers escorting them.”

He heard her start the car and pass the phone off to Kyle. “What the hell happened, Alex?”

“Listen to me carefully, Kyle. They’ve both been given a strong sedative and they’re very weak right now.” He glanced at Flint. “I don’t think the sedative will harm them,” Flint shook his head, “but they will need some time to sleep it off and recover. Get them back to Max’s and keep an eye on them. I have a few more things I need to do here. I’ll meet you back in Roswell.”

“Alex?” Kyle asked tentatively. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he promised. “Just had a few unexpected developments that I need to handle. I’ll find my own way back, don’t worry. Just get Max and Isobel home safely.”

“Okay. We will.”

Alex hung up the phone and turned to Flint. “Control room?” Flint led him out of the room without another word. A quick turn through the winding hallways later, they arrived at a room fully equipped to run a covert military operation. Inside it, about ten soldiers stood at attention when they entered.

“I shared General Humphries’ missive, sir,” the Staff Sergeant who’d delivered the message to Flint announced. 

“Good,” Alex said. “I am Captain Alex Manes and I am assuming command of Project Shepherd. As of this moment, the Project is placed On Hold while I take stock of its operations. I want this facility cleared out within the hour. Captain Manes,” he nodded to Flint, “will be in touch regarding any return to work here at this facility.” 

There was a pause after he finished while everyone processed his order before they got to work. Alex watched with a careful eye as they secured their workstations and prepared the facility to be effectively abandoned in the short-term.

“What about Dad?” Flint asked quietly.

Alex closed his eyes briefly. “You know these men.” It was a question and it wasn’t. The best option would be for them to handle the matter themselves but given that Flint had shot him defending Alex’s life and he was their father, the conflict of interest was too big. They would need an impartial party to contact the military police and report his death.

“Lieutenant Nix is efficient and discreet,” Flint responded. “She would also handle the matter quickly.”

“Which one is Nix?” Flint nodded to a tall woman locking away the weaponry stored in the gun cages on the far wall. 

Alex spoke with her quietly, informing her of his father’s death and the circumstances surrounding it and asking her to handle the matter according to the letter of the law. She had a tight expression on her face that did not instill a great deal of faith in Alex but he trusted Flint’s judgement in this and a moment later she gave him a sharp nod and left to go find Jesse Manes’ body.

With that taken care of, Alex was left to oversee the temporary shutdown of Project Shepherd. Within 40 minutes, the facility was clear of all personnel and any evidence as to the specific nature of the Project. 

Alex wandered through the halls in their wake and found himself back in the cell block; his father’s body still lay on the floor, untouched. He turned away and pulled out his phone to call Michael.

“Are you okay?” It was late but Michael answered immediately.

“I’m okay,” Alex promised. “Max and Isobel are going to be okay.”

“Your dad?”

“He’s dead. Flint shot him.” Alex pressed a hand to his head, only just now remembering that his father had gotten a shot off before Flint killed him. The drying blood was sticky to the touch and he resolved to look at it later. 

“Project Shepherd?”

Alex laughed harshly. “It’s mine. The General gave me command.”

“What? But you’re-” Michael stopped. 

“I’m done in six months,” Alex promised. There was no way he was re-upping. Not even for this. “I’ll get it shut down by then. I promise.”

Michael’s sigh of relief was evident through the phone. “So what now?”

“Now?” Alex hummed as he stared out the window. “Now I miss you. How do you feel about New Mexico in November?”

\- - - - - - - - 

_ 2018 _

“What the hell is this?” Michael held up a letter, his face a mask of confusion. Alex cursed when he saw the letterhead; he’d thought he’d have more time to figure out how to have this conversation. “Alex?”

Alex cleared his throat and stood up. He didn’t want to be sitting for this conversation. “It’s my new posting.”

Michael shook his head. “Your new posting is Andrews.”

“Andrews was temporary. While I recovered and was fitted for a prosthetic.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m being reassigned to Kirtland in New Mexico.”

Michael stared at him then looked at the letter still clutched in his hand. “It says here, ‘per your request’.” He looked up at Alex. “You requested _ New Mexico _?”

“It’s the closest base to Roswell.”

“Okay,” Michael said slowly. He opened his mouth and closed it again. “I don’t understand.” He rubbed a hand across his forehead in a way he didn’t use to, before Alex. “Why on Earth would you request to be reassigned to New Mexico? I thought we agreed Andrews was the best choice.”

“You agreed,” Alex said and he watched Michael flinch. “Michael- I have one year left. _ One _ year. And then I’ll be back and I’ll find a civilian job and-”

Michael dropped the paper on the table and took a step back from Alex. “One year. One fucking year and you asked to be sent across the country. Why?”

“Because I haven’t been home in almost ten years and after I’m out and settled here, _ with you _, I don’t really foresee any situation where I’ll go back. I haven’t seen Maria in years and when I talked to Liz a few months ago she said she was thinking of moving back to be with her dad and it just seems like the perfect opportunity to be able to reconnect with them.”

Michael nodded slowly. “Right. Okay. Sure.” He cleared his throat and nodded again. “When were you going to tell me about this? You had to have put the request in weeks ago.”

“I did,” Alex agreed. He paused.

“Well? _ Were _ you going to tell me? Or would I just come home one day to you being gone?”

“Of course I was going to tell you!” Alex yelled. “Don’t even suggest I’d just disappear on you.”

Michael scoffed. “Sorry. I must have misread the whole situation.” He glared at Alex.

“I didn’t know how to bring it up,” Alex admitted. “It’s something I feel like I need to do but I knew it would hurt you and I didn’t want to do that.”

The laugh that Michael let out was painful to Alex’s ears. “Well great job with that one, Alex. Hiding it from me and letting me find out from a letter was really the way to go to avoid hurting me.” He turned around and walked into the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” Alex told him. “I should have talked to you about it, I know, and I’m sorry I didn’t. But-” he paused and cleared his throat. “Michael, this is my choice.”

Michael braced his arms on the counter and hung his head. “Right. I don’t get a say in where you live. Got it.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Okay.” Michael turned around and crossed his arms across his chest. “So tell me what you did mean.”

“Michael, we have the rest of our lives to live together. I have an opportunity here to revisit the only good parts of my life before I met you and I don’t want to pass it up. I don’t want to pick one more year of living here with you over that opportunity, not when I know we’ll have every year after that together.”

Michael breathed out slowly. “When do you report? Two weeks right?” Alex looked away. “Jesus Christ, Alex. How much time do we have?”

“I have to be on base on Monday.” It was Wednesday. “They have an urgent need for a codebreaker on site.”

Michael leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Okay.” 

“Okay?” Alex eyed him warily.

He just shrugged. “It’s not like I can do anything about it. It’s done.” He glared at Alex before looking away and shaking his head. “Okay so we go back to monthly visits. Alternate who makes the trip. We’ve done long distance before, we can do it again.”

“Michael,” Alex said softly.

Michael stared at him. “What?” His voice was weary, all the anger drained from it.

Alex swallowed. “I think it’s best that, uh, while I’m in New Mexico, you don’t come visit. I’ll come back when I can, but I think our visits should stay here. In D.C.” His father was in Roswell, was working at Kirtland, and Alex knew he had to keep Michael far away from him.

Michael stared at him. He waited a beat for Alex to say something else. But Alex didn’t have anything else to say. With a shake of his head, Michael pushed past him out of the kitchen. Alex watched him as he disappeared into the bedroom only to reappear with his jacket and computer bag. He slipped his shoes on and grabbed his keys before walking out the door without a word.

Alex left two days later. Michael’s “have a safe flight” when he dropped him off at the airport were the only words he spoke the entire 48 hours.

\- - - - - - - 

_ Present Day _

Michael flew into the Albuquerque Airport two days later after they rescued Max and Isobel. His flight landed at 9am because Michael was secretly a masochist who enjoyed early mornings and didn’t mind flying at 6am. 

For once, Alex didn’t mind his own early morning. It was a three hour drive from Roswell to Albuquerque and Alex woke up early to make sure he was there to pick Michael up. Michael had offered to rent a car but Alex wouldn’t hear of it. He hadn’t seen Michael in six months. Like hell was he going to wait an extra three hours.

Ordinarily, Alex would have just waited in the car in the pick up lane but this time he’d paid the exorbitant fee to park the car and go inside. He wasn’t in the terminal for more than five minutes when he saw him, wild curls bouncing far too happily for the hour. Alex bounced lightly on the balls of his feet (well, foot) but stayed where he was and waited for Michael to see him.

The last time they’d seen each other hadn’t gone well and though they’d spoken on the phone often and skyped almost as much, Alex was still a little unsure how happy Michael would be to see him.

He needn’t have worried. 

The second Michael saw him, he bobbed and weaved his way through the crowd of dead-eyed travelers until he reached Alex. He dropped his bag at their feet as Alex launched himself the last few feet into Michael’s arms.

“Holy fuck, I’ve missed you,” Michael whispered as they held each other tightly. 

“I’ve missed you too,” Alex told him. “So fucking much.” They held each other a little longer before Alex pulled back far enough to kiss him. “I’m sorry for not telling you about my dad and for being a dick about the posting. I should’ve been upfront from the start.”

“Yes, you should’ve been,” Michael agreed. “But apology accepted. Now let’s move on, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed as he brushed a curl out of Michael’s face. “I’m so happy you’re here.”

Michael smiled. “Good. Because I’m happy to be here.” His fingers brushed over the bandage on the side of Alex’s head. “What happened?”

“Dad got off a lucky shot. I’m fine,” Alex brushed it off as he bent to pick up Michael’s bag. “Now let’s get you to Roswell.”

“Did you tell them?” As Alex had hoped, Michael was sufficiently distracted by the idea of finally meeting his siblings. Though he eyed the bandage worriedly, he allowed Alex to change the subject and frankly, he couldn’t have hidden his eagerness if he’d tried. Alex knew he was excited to meet Liz and Maria too but it was really Max and Isobel that Michael was aching to see.

Alex shook his head. “I told them all my boyfriend was coming. I didn’t tell them who you were. Just in case.” Michael glared at him but Alex shrugged it off. “There’s still a chance-”

“It’s them,” Michael told him, a smile appearing on his lips. “I can _ feel _them, Alex.”

The three hour drive back felt like it took no time at all. They didn’t really need to catch up since they talked all the time but they both still found anecdotes they hadn’t shared, little snippets of their lives apart the past few months. Alex did his best to tell Michael about Max and Isobel but the truth was he still didn’t know them very well so his stories were mostly about Liz and Maria and, surprisingly, Kyle.

When they got close to Roswell, Alex eyed the turn off towards the cabin. “Do you want to take your stuff to the cabin? Maybe get some food or take a shower or-” he stopped when Michael just gave him a look. “Oooor, we can just go to Max’s and join them for lunch.”

Michael narrowed his eyes. “Lunch sounds great.”

Alex laughed and texted Liz to confirm that he and Michael would be there soon. She and Maria were waiting outside for them when they pulled up half an hour later.

“Oh my god, really?” He asked as he got out of the car.

Both of them gave him their best innocent look for half a second before Michael got out and they turned to him. “So you’re the infamous Michael?” Liz asked.

“I didn’t realize I was infamous yet but if you say I am, who am I to argue with a beautiful woman?” Michael gave her his most charming smile, complete with a fucking wink, and Liz cracked like an egg. 

“Oh my god, I think I love you already,” she told him. “I’m Liz.” 

“Nice to finally meet you, Liz. I’m Michael.” He held out his hand for her to shake but she just pulled him into a quick hug. Behind her back Maria gave Alex a thumbs up. When Liz freed him from her grasp, Maria stepped up. “You must be Maria.”

“I must be,” Maria agreed with a wry grin. She too hugged Michael before stepping back and waving them towards the house. “Now come on, food’s getting cold.”

Liz led them around to the back and in through the patio doors. Alex could feel Michael getting jittery, his hands twitching at his sides as they got closer and closer to Max and Isobel. As they stepped inside, he reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing tightly in reassurance.

“Hey!” Kyle greeted. “Finally get to meet the boy-”

He stopped when Isobel dropped a glass serving tray full of food and it shattered on the ground. Everyone turned to stare at her but she only had eyes for Michael. Behind her, Max came running in from the kitchen. “Is? What’s wro-” He came to a comical halt just behind her as he caught sight of Michael.

“Holy sh-” Max whispered.

“It’s you,” Isobel gasped, a smile spreading across her face.

Next to him, Michael smiled that brilliant fucking smile of his. “Hi,” he greeted his brother and sister. “Sorry it took me so long.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Christi's birthday and she wanted to see Patrick in this universe so she gets Patrick in this universe

Maria, Liz, and Kyle were talking around him but frankly Alex didn’t care. The sun was warm without being too hot, the food was good, and Michael was  _ beaming _ . 

Alex couldn’t look away.

“Wow,” Liz said, long and slow. Something in her voice managed to snag his attention and Alex dragged his eyes away from Michael long enough to glance over at her. She was looking at him, a pleased smirk on her face. Kyle and Maria weren’t sitting next to her.

“What?” He looked back over at Michael.

“This is what love looks like, huh?” There was a teasing edge to her voice.

Alex glanced over at her, longer this time. “What do you mean?”

Her laugh filled the air. “You can’t look away from your boyfriend! He’s been here for four days and he’s not leaving for another three but you look at him like you can’t believe he’s real or like he’s going to disappear if you take your eyes off of him for a second.” She pauses. “It’s cute.”

Alex glared. “I am not  _ cute _ .” He didn’t bother arguing her other points. He  _ was _ looking at Michael like he couldn’t believe he was real mostly because Alex still couldn’t believe this was really happening. Michael was here, in Roswell, with his brother and sister. 

There had been a moment, not too long ago, when Alex had been afraid he’d lost this. The way he’d left DC, the way he’d handled this posting, had been...not great. But they’d gotten through it. And Michael was  _ here _ . Alex looked back over at his boyfriend and his lips turned upwards in a helpless smile. The sun was catching his curls and making them glow. It had nothing on his smile though.

Michael was standing a little ways away from the house, Max and Isobel crowded around him, as he demonstrated his powers. Well, they’d done the show and tell the first day Michael was here. Now he was mostly just showing off under the guise of ‘training’.

Liz made a sound. Alex turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not staying, are you? In Roswell, I mean.”

Alex furrowed his brow. “As soon as my enlistment is done, I’m going home.” He’d never said anything else. “You know that.”

“I know,” she agreed. “I guess I was holding off a little bit of hope that maybe you’d decide to stick around after.” She smiled. “But Roswell isn’t home anymore, is it?” Alex shook his head. “Unless Michael wanted to move here?”

“Michael’s moving?” Maria asked as she and Kyle rejoined them. She had two margaritas in her hand and deftly passed one over to Liz. Kyle handed Alex a bottle of water. Maria looked over at Alex then out at Michael. “You’re staying in Roswell?”

Alex laughed and shook his head. “No. Michael’s job is in DC and he loves it way too much to ever leave.” Laughter rung out loud and clear and Alex was captivated once again. “I have a feeling we’ll be back to visit a lot though.”

“Good,” Maria huffed. “No disappearing on us again.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you have to worry about that,” Kyle laughed. He nodded out at the trio. “You’re going to need a forklift to separate those three.”

Alex wanted to object but he couldn’t. Since they’d arrived, Michael had been spending a lot of time with Max and Isobel. Alex didn’t, couldn’t, begrudge him their time together but if Michael hadn’t been sleeping at his house, he wasn’t sure they’d have had any time alone together. 

He was pretty sure that was the only reason Michael was staying with him and not crashing in Max’s spare room.

A crisp ringing split the air and Alex quickly dug out his phone. When he saw who it was he answered it without hesitation.

“Hey,” he greeted warmly. “What’s up?”

“Hey yourself,” he heard in response. “How’s life in the land of aliens?”

Alex looked out at his said aliens as Isobel visibly huffed and shoved Michael’s shoulder. Max stood next to them, laughing. “It’s good,” he replied. “It’s really good.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”

Alex frowned absently. “You haven’t heard it?”

There was a noncommittal grunt. “Been a couple of days since I talked to Michael. I know things were a little rocky after your relocation and I was trying to give you guys space in case you needed to work anything out.”

Alex tilted his head back to look at the passing clouds. “We’re good,” he promised. “Michael’s fitting in like he belongs. I hate that he’s leaving in three days but I’ll be home in six more months. We’ve made it through worse.”

“Yes you have,” came the instant agreement. “But don’t let it go six months without seeing him again, yeah? I can’t handle the stress.”

Alex laughed. “Oh  _ you _ can’t handle it?”

“Who the hell do you think gets the middle of the night phone call when he’s paranoid and freaking out?” Alex might be worried if he couldn’t hear the teasing lilt. “He was really upset that you didn’t want him in Roswell.” That came out much more serious.

“I know. But I had a reason.”

“A good reason?”

“...a reason.”

“Manes,” came a heavy sigh.

“I know. It’s fine now, though. We’re good.”

“Uhuh.”

Alex sighed and looked over. “Michael!” All three aliens turned at his shout. “Your boyfriend’s worried I don’t treasure you enough!” A booming laugh came out of the phone, loud enough that Kyle looked at the phone in surprise. 

Michael grinned and bounded over. He pressed a quick kiss to Alex’s lips before plucking his phone from his fingertips and pressing it to his own ear. “Patrick, Patrick, Patrick, you know  _ exactly _ how well Alex treasures me.” He stepped inside as he continued to talk.

Alex’s eyes followed him through the glass doors. “Michael’s boyfriend?” Isobel asked, dropping gracefully into a free chair. 

Alex hummed. “Best friend,” he corrected, turning back to the group. “But sometimes I think it’s only because Patrick is tragically heterosexual.” 

“That doesn’t bother you?” Kyle asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Alex replied honestly. “He’s a damn good friend.” And he was. Despite Patrick being in the Air Force, Alex had actually met the man through Michael. Patrick had been another member of the bachelor party Michael had been in Vegas with when Alex crossed paths with them there. He was fairly certain neither of them spoke to the groom anymore but they’d formed a fast friendship that weekend that had lasted ever since. Alex was almost as big a fan of the guy as Michael was. In fact, though they’d never been posted to the same base, they’d been deployed at the same time during Alex’s last deployment and Patrick’s company had been one of the only things keeping him sane. Plus, he’d been the one to save Alex’s life by sacrificing his leg. And he’d called Michael to tell him when the Air Force refused to. 

Patrick was good people. He’d fight anyone who implied otherwise.

“Good,” Max said firmly. “Michael deserves it.” Alex smiled over at (his future brother-in-law? Friend? Friend’s boyfriend?) him. 

“He does,” he agreed.”

\---

“You know I don’t want to hear about your sex life, Guerin,” Patrick whined in his ear as Michael escaped into the house.

“You asked!” Michael laughed.

“I distinctly did not!” Patrick grumbled. Michael flopped onto the couch gracelessly. Outside, Alex was looking in at him and Michael met his gaze, smiling warmly. “How’s New Mexico?” Patrick asked.

“It’s great,” Michael replied honestly. “Alex has been worked up over this thing with his dad lately but it’s all over now so he’s finally letting himself relax a bit and he’s good.” He smiled. “We’re good.”

“Good,” Patrick replied. “Now how’s New Mexico?”

Michael laughed. “Hot. It’s November, it shouldn’t be hot.”

“Man, I’m in  _ Florida _ ,” Patrick reminded him. “It’s hot  _ and _ humid.”

“Yeah that sounds terrible,” Michael told him without sympathy. “Shouldn’t have requested Patrick just for the irony.”

Patrick sighed. “It was a good opportunity,” he insisted.

“You couldn’t resist,” Michael corrected.

“I couldn’t resist,” Patrick agreed. “And now I’m suffering for it.”

Michael hummed. “Hey, guess what?”

“What?”

“Alex found my brother and sister.”

There was a pause on the other end followed by a shuffling of fabric like Patrick had just sat straight up. “What?”

“Yup,” Michael smiled, looking out at Max and Isobel. “We got separated at a group home when we were kids but Alex found them.” He laughed. “Turns out he grew up with them actually. They’ve been here in Roswell the whole time.”

“Holy shit, Michael,” Patrick breathed. “That’s amazing.” He paused. “That’s amazing, right?”

“Yes,” Michael said emphatically. “It’s absolutely amazing. They’re amazing. Turns out they’ve been looking for me, too. As soon as I saw them, it just clicked.”

“I’m so happy for you, man,” Patrick told him. “Does Alex get along with them?”

“Yeah. I mean, they were never friends exactly but they seem to have always gotten along. And now my brother’s dating one of his best friends.” He paused. “He’s my brother.” He sounded like an idiot, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. For the first time in 20 years, he could talk about them. They were standing right outside, not trapped in his childhood memories. 

Patrick laughed. “Guess you have to get used to the desert, huh?”

Michael groaned. “I’d rather they come up to DC but I don’t think that’s going to happen too often,” he agreed. 

“You going to be okay to leave them?”

“Yeah,” Michael replied. Honestly, it would be a rough adjustment, he knew. Now that his connection to them was bright and shiny and intact, stretching it across the country would be a challenge but he didn’t have a choice. As much as their life was here, his was there. Well, it would be as soon as Alex came home. “I can’t wait for Alex to come home,” he confessed suddenly. “I miss him.”

“Isn’t he right there?” Patrick asked.

Michael looked out the window. Someone had clearly just told a joke as everyone was laughing. Alex’s head was thrown back and the sun was making his skin glow. “Yeah, he is.”

“Stop ogling your boyfriend.”

“I can’t help it!” Michael defended himself. “He’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, yes, he’s very pretty and love makes him even prettier,” Patrick grumbled goodnaturedly. They’d had this discussion before. “How do you miss him when he’s right there?”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Max and Isobel,” Michael admitted. “My brother and sister,” he clarified.

“Thank you, I managed to make that connection all on my own,” Patrick teased. Michael had the strange urge to stick his tongue out at the phone but he restrained himself. “So, what, you flew all the way there and now you’re ignoring him?”

“No!” Michael denied. “I’ve just been, I don’t know, busy with them. Getting to know them, you know? I haven’t been completely ignoring Alex.”

“Right,” Patrick agreed easily. “But you’ve been spending so much time apart that you miss him even though he’s right there.”

“Yeah.”

“Michael,”

“Don’t take that tone with me.”

“Don’t act like an idiot and I won’t have to!” 

“I’m not!”

“Michael,” Patrick sighed. “I’ve known you for a long time. I’ve had a front row seat to the Alex and Mikey show for almost as long as you two have been together.”

“Your point?”

“My point is that the last six months have been rough,” Patrick didn’t sugarcoat it. “This might be the closest I’ve ever seen you two to calling it quits.”

“Hey, woah, we were not going to call it quits!” 

“I didn’t say you were,” Patrick soothed. “I just said it’s the closest I’ve ever seen you guys get to that point. Maybe spend a little time with your boyfriend? Your brother and sister aren’t going anywhere, you know. You don’t have to spend every second with them.”

“It’s not  _ every _ second,” Michael denied. But he could admit, it was a lot of seconds. Most of his waking moments, really. As soon as he walked through the door four days ago, Max and Isobel had hugged him then called out of work for the week he’d be here. Alex had taken off as well but he’d given the three of them their space to connect and get to know each other. “Okay you might have a point.”

“Of course I do.”

“Don’t be smug,” Michael rolled his eyes.

“It’s not smug if it’s deserved.”

“I think there’s a flaw in your logic.”

“Oh? Where?” He could hear Patrick’s smirk.

“I don’t want you to be smug.”

Patrick hummed. “I don’t think that’s a flaw in  _ my _ logic.” Alex opened the back door and stepped inside. Michael looked at him and smiled. He looked good. Besides the sun kissed glow he wore carelessly, there was an ease to him that Michael hadn’t seen in a while. Alex hadn’t been this relaxed since they took that road trip down the Pacific Coast before his last deployment. “Alex is there, isn’t he?” 

Michael startled. “How’d you know that?”

“Because you stopped answering,” Patrick laughed. “You get distracted when he’s around.”

Michael sighed dreamily. “He’s just so pretty.”

Alex rolled his eyes. Michael grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the couch with him. “Ok fine,” Patrick said in his ear. “I can tell when I’m intruding.”

“Can you really, though?” Michael asked. “Because I remember-”

“Goodbye.” Patrick hung up.

“He hung up on me,” Michael stared at the phone. Alex laughed and took it from him.

“You’ll get over it.”

Michael leaned over and kissed him. Alex was clearly surprised but immediately returned it, the phone slipping from his fingers as he dug his hands into Michael’s hair. Michael curled his fingers around Alex’s hips and leaned back onto the couch, pulling Alex with him. They exchanged long, slow, lazy kisses until the back door opened and let the outside world in.

“Really? On my couch?” Max huffed as he walked past them into the kitchen. A few days ago Michael might have been worried, might have taken Max honestly at his gruff tone, but now Michael knew enough to see the upturn of his lips, the amusement behind the gruffness. 

“Really,” he replied, not letting Alex get up. He kissed him again. “Hi,” he said quietly.

“Hi,” Alex replied. He smiled. “What the hell did you and Patrick talk about?”

“I think I’ve been ignoring you,” Michael said instead of answering.

“That’s okay,” Alex assured him. It wasn’t a denial. “You just met Max and Isobel, I get it.” He ran a hand down Michael’s arm and squeezed his hand. “I don’t need to monopolize all of your time.”

Michael sat up. His movement pushed Alex away slightly and Michael pulled him back in. “No. Not okay. They’re great,”

“Hell yeah we are,” Max passed them again on his way back outside. Michael and Alex laughed.

“But they’re not you,” Michael continued when the door shut behind Max. “I came out here because I missed you and I feel like I’m still missing you. We need a day to ourselves.”

“We’ve got time, Michael. You only have a few days here, I don’t want to cut in on your time with them.”

“Fuck ‘em,” Michael grinned. “I met them four days ago. It’s been a great four days, and yeah I want to spend more time with them before I leave, but I came here for you. I want to spend time with you and I want you to show me where you grew up and I want to get to know Liz and Maria.” He leaned forward until his forehead pressed against Alex’s. “You got any plans for tomorrow?”

Alex closed his eyes and pretended to think about it. “I’m sure I could pencil you in.”

“Oh could you? Could you pencil me in?” Michael laughed.

Alex hummed. “Somewhere between watching Netflix and taking a long shower.”

“Room for two in that shower?”

“I think we could make it work.”

Michael kissed him. “But after that shower?” Alex raised an eyebrow in question. “Max has this hat…”

Alex pulled back to look at him in surprise. “You want a hat like Max?”

Michael’s eyes flicked over to where Max’s hung on a hook by the door. “Maybe not exactly like Max’s but I think I’d look good in a cowboy hat.” Alex didn’t say anything. “No?”

Alex brushed a curl out of his face. “Black, I think,” he mused. “You could make it work.”

“Hell yeah I could.”

**Author's Note:**

> [come find me on tumblr!](https://bestillmyslashyheart.tumblr.com/)


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